Shared control strategy for needle insertion into deformable tissue using inverse Finite Element simulation

This paper deals with the problem of needle steering in deformable tissues subject to physiological motions. A novel shared control method is proposed, which combines an automatic needle steering algorithm with the motions applied by the radiologist, in order to place the needle tip at the desired location. The core motivation is to leave potentially dangerous decisions and actions to the practitioner, whereas complex non-intuitive manipulations of the needle are performed automatically, in particular to compensate for breathing motions. The most original part of the present work lies in the method used to combine user inputs with a closed-loop automatic needle steering control method based on inverse Finite Element simulations. The method is evaluated with a realistic virtual environment using 2D X-ray projection images. The results are compared with those obtained with a fully teleoperated system, on the one hand, and with a fully automatic solution, on the other hand. These experiments show that the shared control solution allows for a better needle tip placement when only projection imaging is available.