Reaction force analysis of puncture robot for CT-guided Interventional Radiology in animal experiment

A medical procedure called Interventional Radiology (IR) is paid much attention in recent years. IR can be performed percutaneously while a doctor observes patient´s fluoroscopic image. It has advantage that invasiveness is low compared with conventional surgery. In order to take patient´s fluoroscopic image, computed tomography (CT) equipment is often used. In this case, it is problem that the doctor is exposed to radiation because the doctor should conduct the procedure close to CT equipment. Thus, we have developed a robot called "Zerobot" which has six DOF and remote-control feature with dedicated input device. In this paper, first, overview of Robotic IR is described. Then, we describes about animal puncture experiment of Zerobot, and discuss the result of puncture reaction force analysis in the experiment.