Transformer Based Tissue Classification in Robotic Needle Biopsy

IEEE SMC 2024 Image-guided minimally invasive robotic surgery is commonly employed for tasks such as needle biopsies or localized therapies. However, the nonlinear deformation of various tissue types presents difficulties for surgeons in achieving precise needle tip placement, particularly when relying on low-fidelity biopsy imaging systems. In this paper, we introduce a method to classify needle biopsy interventions and identify tissue types based on a comprehensive needle-tissue contact model that incorporates both position and force parameters. We trained a transformer model using a comprehensive dataset collected from a formerly developed robotics platform, which consists of synthetic and porcine tissue from various locations (liver, kidney, heart, belly, hock) marked with interaction phases (pre-puncture, puncture, post-puncture, neutral). This model achieves a significant classification accuracy of 0.93. Our demonstrated method can assist surgeons in identifying transitions to different tissues, aiding surgeons with tissue awareness.