Design and testing of a Robotic system for MR image-guided interventions

The effective integration of robotics together with magnetic resonance (MR) technology is expected to facilitate the real-time guidance of various diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. Specially designed robotic manipulators are required for this purpose, the development of which is a challenging task given the strong magnetic fields and the space limitations that characterize the MR scanning environment. A prototype MR-compatible manipulator is presented, designed to operate inside cylindrical MR scanners. It was developed for the study of minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in the abdominal and thoracic area with real-time MR image guidance. Initial tests were performed inside a high-field clinical MR scanner and included MR-compatibility tests and phantom studies on imageguided targeting.