Design and Deviation Analysis of a Semi-automated Needle Manipulation System Using Image Processing Technique

Needle insertion is one of the most important parts of medical sector. For critical needle operations, precise needle insertion and removal speed control is very necessary, failing which trauma can be caused to the patients, and there will be chances of serious injuries to the internal organs. Hence, the main aim of this research work is to design and fabricate a setup that can precisely control the speed and depth of needle insertion procedure. This experimental setup contains four links and four joints having four degrees of freedom, and it was modeled in SOLIDWORKS. There are 3 revolute and 1 prismatic joint among which the revolute pairs can be used to manually position a needle and prismatic joint is automated for needle insertion. Depth and velocity of insertion of needle in the linear actuator is controlled automatically with the help of rotary encoder. The automated control system is controlled with the help of MyRIO controller. MyRIO is programmed using LabVIEW software. Six experiments were performed for each angle of insertion of the needle with respect to horizontal axis at 90°, 60°, and 25° to simulate various needle insertion medical procedures. Image processing techniques were used to analyze actual depth of insertion and angle of insertion of the needle. Basler ACA 1300 smart camera is used to capture the images and it was analyzed using MATLAB. A cost-effective alternative to test this kind of device using image processing in laboratory conditions is shown in this research. After analysis of the semi-automated needle insertion system, all the deviations from the required value were found to be minimal and within medical parameters.