A robot for non-invasive breast cancer surgery

The use robotic principles as surgical assist technology, particularly in the area of minimal invasive surgery may provide several advantages. These include, but not limited to higher accuracy, precision and repeatability in manipulating surgical instruments in desired locations. This paper describes the design and development of a robotic system for non-invasive surgery of breast cancer using high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) as the surgical modality. A custom designed robot, operating partially in a water tank is devised to guide the end-effector through a pre-determined trajectory. A 4-axis controller is used for controlling various sub-sections of the system within a constrained work envelope. The end-point accuracy of the designed system at the end-effector is accomplished within /spl plusmn/1mm.