Design and develop an active (smart) needle, and test it inside tissue to accurately reach target (cancerous) areas. The smart needle is used for delivering therapeutic drugs, taking biopsy samples, or the whole tumor out in procedures such as brachytherapy, biopsy, and cancer lumpectomy. We work directly with surgeons at different hospitals in Hawaii and in the mainland. Our active projects look into methods to enhance current procedures to help prostate cancer, breast biopsy and breast lumpectomy.
Our team use a state-of-the-art robotic needle insertion system, with advanced actuators, and control programs to navigate the smart needle inside tissue with ultrasound imaging, or electromagnetic position feedback.
We work on diverse areas such as: smart (shape memory actuators) actuators, shape sensing, material characteristics, innovative active needle design, finite element analyses, 3D printing and other advanced manufacturing methods, nonlinear control, image processing, motor control, needle-tissue interactions, etc. Therefore, there are several areas for undergraduate students to learn and contribute.
For more information see: https://uhatmanoa.wixsite.com/ammi
Key elements:
Programming, actuators, robotic manipulation, embedded systems, microcontrollers, motors
More explanations:
rachytherapy is known as a popular treatment for prostate cancer. During this procedure surgeon insert radioactive seeds inside the prostate close to the cancerous cells. The radioactive dosage will kill the cancer locally. Obviously, the success of this procedure depends on the precise placement of the seeds. If placed in a wrong location, another surgery is required to take the seeds out to avoid damaging the healthy tissue.
Currently, straight rigid hollow needles and stylets are being used to place the seeds in the desired locations. A smart actuated needle has been developed in AMMI Lab to help the accuracy of the procedure. Advanced shape memory alloy wires have been used to apply force to the body of the needle to bend the needle inside the tissue. Using smart needles doctors will have extra control to guide their needle to the target locations.
This project will focus on developing a program to guide the smart needle inside the tissue. Several devices must function simultaneously to perform the surgery. A Raspberry PI will be used to command all devices such as power supply, actuators, linear stage motor and the Electromagnetic (EM) tracking system to reach the target location. Also a teleoperative software will be developed to control the amount of power for actuators and the speed of insertion based on the deflection feedback from the EM tracking system as a user friendly interface.