Spatial Shape Sensing of a Multisection Continuum Robot With Integrated DTG Sensor for Maxillary Sinus Surgery

Owing to the curved and narrow pathway of the maxillary sinus, reaching blind regions using rigid instruments in the traditional method of treatment is difficult. In this article, a novel multisection continuum robot (CR) integrated with essential instruments and sensors is developed for the maxillary sinus surgery. Moreover, shape sensing is important for the control of the CR, but this is still a challenge due to the confined operating space. To track the spatial shape of the developed CR, a draw tower grating (DTG) sensor is integrated. A shape sensing algorithm is proposed to reconstruct the shape of the CR based on the relation between the DTG sensor and the CR centerline. Simulations and experiments on a maxillary sinus phantom are conducted to test the ability of the CR to reach the blind regions. Different groups of experiments are performed to evaluate the performance of the shape reconstructions, including DTG sensor shape tests and CR shape tests in planar and spatial space. Experiments show a mean planar error of 0.23 mm (0.51%) and a mean spatial error of 0.61 mm (1.36%). The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the multisection CR shape sensing method suggested in this study.