CRANE: A highly dexterous needle placement robot for evaluation of interventional radiology procedures

Interventional Radiology (IR) enables earlier diagnosis and less invasive treatment of numerous ailments. Here we present our ongoing development of CRANE: CT RoboticArm and Needle Emplacer, a robotic needle positioning system for CT guided procedures. The robot has 8 active Degrees-of-Freedom (DoF) and a novel infinite travel needle insertion mechanism. The control system is distributed using the RobotOperating System (ROS) across a low latency network that interconnects a real-time low-jitter controller, with a desktop computer which hosts the User Interface (UI) and high-level control. This platform can serve to evaluate limitations in the current procedures and to prototype potential solutions to these challenges in-situ.