Design of a 6-DoF Parallel Robotic Platform for MRI Applications

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Mishek Musa, University of Arkansas; Saikat Sengupta, Vanderbilt University; Yue Chen, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2022-06-01
• Publisher: World Scientific
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: World Scientific
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/S2424905X22410057
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Journal of Medical Robotics Research
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 2-3
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported in part by funding from NIBIB R21EB025258.
• Keywords: MRI; motion generation; parallel robot
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Radiology

Abstract

In this work, the design, analysis, and characterization of a parallel robotic motion generation platform with 6-degrees of freedom (DoF) for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) applications are presented. The motivation for the development of this robot is the need for a robotic platform able to produce accurate 6-DoF motion inside the MRI bore to serve as the ground truth for motion modeling; other applications include manipulation of interventional tools such as biopsy and ablation needles and ultrasound probes for therapy and neuromodulation under MRI guidance. The robot is comprised of six pneumatic cylinder actuators controlled via a robust sliding mode controller. Tracking experiments of the pneumatic actuator indicates that the system is able to achieve an average error of 0.69 ± 0.14mm and 0.67 ± 0.40mm for step signal tracking and sinusoidal signal tracking, respectively. To demonstrate the feasibility and potential of using the proposed robot for minimally invasive procedures, a phantom experiment was performed in the benchtop environment, which showed a mean positional error of 1.20 ± 0.43mm and a mean orientational error of 1.09 ±0.57 ° , respectively. Experiments conducted in a 3T whole body human MRI scanner indicate that the robot is MRI compatible and capable of achieving positional error of 1.68 ± 0.31mm and orientational error of 1.51 ± 0.32° inside the scanner, respectively. This study demonstrates the potential of this device to enable accurate 6-DoF motions in the MRI environment.