Dynamic path planning for inserting a steerable needle into soft tissue

Bevel-tip steerable needles are widely used in modern minimally invasive percutaneous procedures to reach specific positions inside the body. In this paper, we propose a dynamic path planning approach to insert a steerable needle into soft tissue. Based on mathematic modeling of soft tissue deformation during the insertion process, the proposed approach can drive the needle to reach a goal position in deformable environment. As the goal position changes in the deformable environment, a dynamic path planner is proposed to re-plan the path until the needle tip approaches the target successfully. Simulation and experiment are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach to insert a flexible needle in deformable environment. © 2012 IEEE.