A manually actuated continuum robot research platform for deployable shape-memory curved cannulae in stereotactic neurosurgery

In this paper, a research platform for concentric tube continuum robots is developed in order to enable advances in deploying curved cannulae for stereotactic neurosurgery. The system consists of a manually operated high-precision actuation apparatus and a photogrammetric system with measurement errors in the range of 100 micrometer. With this platform, previously planned curved paths can be analyzed ex-situ w.r.t., e.g., target precision, follow-the-leader-behavior, and hysteretic phenomena. Regarding research towards an in-vivo application in human brains, first tests with porcine brain cadavers inside an intraoperative CT are conducted in order to pave the way for histological as well as target reachability studies.