Sliding Mode Control of Steerable Needles

Abstract

Steerable needles can potentially increase the accuracy of needle-based diagnosis and therapy delivery, provided they can be adequately controlled based on medical image information. We propose a novel sliding mode control law that can be used to deliver the tip of a flexible asymmetric-tipped needle to a desired point, or to track a desired trajectory within tissue. The proposed control strategy requires no <i>a priori</i> knowledge of model parameters, has bounded input speeds, and requires little computational resources. We show that if the standard nonholonomic model for tip-steered needles holds, then the control law will converge to desired targets in a reachable workspace, within a tolerance that can be defined by the control parameters. Experimental results validate the control law for target points and trajectory following in phantom tissue and <i>ex vivo</i> liver. Experiments with targets that move during insertion illustrate robustness to disturbances caused by tissue deformation.