Adaptive energy shaping control of robotic needle insertion

This work studies the control of a pneumatic actuator for needle insertion in soft tissue without using axial rotation or additional needle supports. Employing a simplified rigid-link model description of an axial-symmetric tip needle supported at the base, two energy shaping controllers are proposed. The friction forces of the pneumatic actuator are compensated adaptively and the stability conditions for the closed-loop equilibrium are discussed. The controllers are compared by means of simulations and experiments on two different silicone rubber phantoms. The results indicate that the proposed controllers effectively compensate the actuator's friction, which is comparable to the insertion forces for the chosen pneumatic actuators. The first controller only depends on the actuator's position thus it achieves the prescribed insertion depth but results in a larger tip rotation and corresponding deflection. The second controller also accounts for the rotation of the needle tip on the bending plane, which can consequently be reduced by over 70% for this specific system. This is achieved by modulating the actuator force and, in case of harder phantoms, by automatically limiting the insertion depth. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.