Super Resolution for Improved Positioning of an MRI-Guided Spinal Cellular Injection Robot

摘要

This paper presents the development of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-conditional needle positioning robot designed for spinal cellular injection. High-accuracy targeting performance is achieved by the combination of a high precision, parallel-plane, needle-orientation mechanism utilizing linear piezoelectric actuators with an iterative super-resolution (SR) visual navigation algorithm using multi-planar MR imaging. In previous work, the authors have developed an MRI conditional robot with positioning performance exceeding the standard resolution of MRI, rendering the MRI resolution the limit for navigation. This paper further explores the application of SR to images for robot guidance, evaluating positioning performance through simulations and experimentally in benchtop and MRI experiments.