Comparison of Optimization Algorithms for a Tubular Aspiration Robot for Maximum Coverage in Intracerebral Hemorrhage Evacuation

Abstract

Intracerebral hemorrhage evacuation (ICH) using a tubular aspiration robot promises benefits over conventional approaches to release the pressure of an hemorrhage within the brain. The blood of the hemorrhage is evacuated through preplanned, coordinated motion of a flexible, curved, concentric tube that aspirates from within the hemorrhage. To achieve maximum decompression, the curvature of the inner aspirator tube has to be selected such that its workspace covers the hemorrhage. As the use of multiple aspiration tubes sequentially is advisable, one can perform an exhaustive search over all possible aspiration tube shapes as has been previously proposed in the literature. In this paper, we introduce a new optimization algorithm which is computationally more efficient and thus allows for quick optimization during surgery. To demonstrate its performance and compare it to the previously proposed exhaustive search algorithm, we present experimental evaluation results on 175 simulated patient trials.