Preliminary Testing and Analysis of an Optimized Robotic ARM for CT Image Guided Medical Procedures

In recent times of evidence based accurate diagnosis. Tissue sampling is done under CT guidance to obtain the accurate diagnosis under specific circumstances. But currently there is no accurate method to do such diagnosis as doctors still use eye ball method to direct the needle using CT image. In this research work an optimized robotic arm mechanism is designed simulated and experimentally tested. A robotic arm is designed in a manner that it can reach the target point provided by user by taking input coordinates from the CT scan images. Designing of this robotic arm is done in SOLIDWORKS 2016 and mathematical equations have been formulated and solved using MATLAB. Optimization of the link length optimization was done using Neural network tool and workspace generation was done using MATLAB. Trajectory generation and path tracing is calculated and simulated using a kinematic model of the real robotic arm in MATLAB. Theoretical accuracy in reaching the target point was found to be fairly good. Experimental model of the robotic arm was setup using stepper motors as joint actuators and ARDUINO MEGA 2560 as microcontroller. Testing was done on the robotic arm by placing an apple in the workspace of the robotic arm and marking an arbitrary target point on that apple. Than the robotic arm was programmed to touch the target point. Level of accuracy found after experimental testing was quite satisfactory.