Needle Placement for Robot-assisted 3D-guided Ultrasound Breast Biopsy: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

This work describes a new robot-assisted three-dimensional ultrasound-guided needle placement for breast biopsy to improve cancer diagnosis by automating needle trajectory, simplifying manual insertion and alleviating radiologist fatigue. In this way, basic robot requirements were first determined based on linking a free-hand ultrasound-guided breast biopsy with a whole-breast volumetric reconstruction system as part of a clinical workflow for breast cancer diagnosis. For modeling, a five-degree-of-freedom open-chain robot was proposed by considering the womans breast volume and a radial ultrasound scanning approach as workspace. The forward and inverse kinematics were calculated using the screw axis-based theory and a geometric-algebraic formulation, respectively. For trajectories, a collision-free path algorithm was computed to assess target reachability. For simulating, a dedicated biopsy environment was implemented in MATLAB-Simulink to perform multiple simulations by modifying some radiologist manipulability variables in accordance with a factorial-method research design. The results showed a numerical and graphical verification of the equations and even a visual one of the needle placement during two stages: before a biopsy and after it. In conclusion, it was computationally explored the use of a novel robot-assisted needle placement in breast biopsy for women in a prone position.