Simulation and implementation of bilateral teleoperated needle insertion via an endoscope

This paper describes the design of a 1 dof teleoperation system aiming at performing a needle insertion task through an endoscope. The mechanical design of the master accounts for issues of ergonomics and performance (low inertia and friction force), while issues of ergonomics and instrumentations guided the design of the slave device. A complete simulator of the master / slave device together with its environment was developed, with particular focus on the major sources of friction. It was used for validation of the control scheme. Experimental results of a needle insertion task in a phantom multilayer tissue demonstrate the effectiveness of the device for detecting force variations due to puncturing of a tissue. Besides, the experimental signal recordings exhibit a good fit with the simulator outputs, which testifies the validity of this simulator.