Path Planning for Concentric Surgical Needles based on Artificial Potential Field

In minimally invasive surgical procedures utilizing needles, reducing patient discomfort during the puncture process via a short optimal puncture path while ensuring safety and high puncture accuracy is vital. Effective puncture path planning is therefore essentially critical. However, geometric constraints of the puncture needles, increasing difficulty in puncture path planning due to their continuous nature, must be taken into account during planning. To tackle these issues, this paper proposes a novel path planning methodology for concentric surgical needles. The proposed methodology establish a path cost function based on artificial potential field considering path length, path safety, and needle tip error. By minimizing the cost function using simulated annealing-genetic algorithm, the optimal puncture path and optimal geometric parameters for concentric needles are obtained. Simulation experiments are conducted in two representative scenarios. Compared with other methods, the proposed method improve the path length and tip error by 4.66% and 38.06%, respectively. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach effectively reduces unnecessary turns in the path and minimizes the needle insertion length while ensuring safety and accuracy under various puncture scenarios.