Preliminary results on OCT-based position control of a concentric tube robot

Abstract

This paper presents preliminary results on OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) based control of a concentric tube robot (CTR). The potential use of OCT system is presented then its ability to perform an optical biopsy and an eye-to-hand configuration for robot control is highlighted. A prototype of CTR with three curved tubes is shortly described then a model-less OCT-based controller is detailed. The extraction of visual features from OCT images is performed by normalized cross-correlation. The proposed control scheme was experimentally validated. The positioning accuracy of CTR control was evaluated in benchtop trials. The error in tip placement can reach 10 μm along X and 74 μm along Y according to controller parameters. The 2D positioning (XY plan) is also tested then a final error about 55 μm is achieved.