Goal & Approach

Goal of the project

The global aim of the project is to develop hybrid image-guided surgery by the development of robotic devices. Interventional radiology with percutaneous procedures is at the same time a representative context and a significant market. Percutaneous procedures have been proven of interest from a medical point of view for early diagnostic and treatment of different type of cancers. Tumor ablation is notably possible for lung, liver, kidney cancers that represent 22% of the total number of new cases per year. Introducing robotic solutions first for percutaneous procedures in interventional radiology is of interest. Several devices are or have been commercialized, which clinical use remains however limited by

• the compatibility with a single image modality: cost and learning curves are increased.
• the poor needle manipulation capabilities: remote manipulation is almost absent, even though it increases safety when X-rays are being used. Needle insertion accuracy is also affected by the simplicity of guidance systems, with no compensation of needle deflections occurring in the tissues
• the absence of interactive manipulation with force indication, whereas haptic information is crucial for radiologists.

Approach

Four specific objectives of the project are built from these observations, which constitue the backbone of the SPIRITS project:

• To create a versatile robotic device with multimodality compatibility
• To create an intelligent remote manipulation device
• To allow interactive manipulation with simple and efficient haptic feedback
• And to demonstrate the added value of the device and ensure its transfer, given the global aim of the project