title: In-bore prostate transperineal interventions with an MRI-guided parallel manipulator: system development and preliminary evaluation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Robot-assisted minimally-invasive surgery is well recognized as a feasible solution for diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer in humans.
  
  
  METHODS
  This paper discusses the kinematics of a parallel 4 Degrees-of-Freedom (DOF) surgical manipulator designed for minimally invasive in-bore prostate percutaneous interventions through the patient's perineum. The proposed manipulator takes advantage of four sliders actuated by MRI-compatible piezoelectric motors and incremental rotary encoders. Errors, mostly originating from the design and manufacturing process, need to be identified and reduced before the robot is deployed in clinical trials.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The manipulator has undergone several experiments to evaluate the repeatability and accuracy (about 1 mm in air (in x or y direction) at the needle's reference point) of needle placement, which is an essential concern in percutaneous prostate interventions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The acquired results endorse the sustainability, precision and reliability of the manipulator. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics (LCSR) at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Sohrab
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eslami
authors.affiliation: Automation and Interventional Medicine (AIM) Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Weijian
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.affiliation: Automation and Interventional Medicine (AIM) Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Automation and Interventional Medicine (AIM) Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Nirav
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.affiliation: Automation and Interventional Medicine (AIM) Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Gregory S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.affiliation: Surgical Navigation and Robotics Laboratory, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Junichi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tokuda
authors.affiliation: Surgical Navigation and Robotics Laboratory, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Nobuhiko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hata
authors.affiliation: Surgical Navigation and Robotics Laboratory, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Clare M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Tempany
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics (LCSR) at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Iulian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Iordachita
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D001706:Biopsy; D001707:Biopsy, Needle / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D002138:Calibration; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009038:Motion; D009339:Needles; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012371:Robotics / Q000379:methods; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods
keywords: MRI compatible; biopsy; calibration assessment; parallel manipulator; prostate transperineal intervention