Design, development, and evaluation of an MRI-guided SMA spring-actuated neurosurgical robot

In this paper, we present our work on the development of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-compatible minimally invasive neurosurgical intracranial robot (MINIR) comprising shape memory alloy (SMA) spring actuators and tendon–sheath mechanisms. We present the detailed modeling and analysis along with experimental results of the characterization of SMA spring actuators. Furthermore, to demonstrate image-feedback control, we used the images obtained from a camera to control the motion of the robot so that eventually continuous MR images could be used in the future to control robot motion. Since the image tracking algorithm may fail in some situations, we also developed a temperature feedback control scheme which served as a backup controller for the robot. Experimental results demonstrated that both image feedback and temperature feedback can be used to control the motion of MINIR. A series of MRI compatibility tests was performed on the robot and the experimental results demonstrated that the robot is MRI-compatible and no significant visual image distortion was observed in the MR images during robot operation.