Grant: Idea to Innovation

Pneumatic Compliant Binary Manipulators (PCBM) can revolutionize the market of mechatronic devices for image-guided interventions. Compared to existing technologies, PCBM are 100% compatible with all imaging systems, including Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), extremely low cost, compact, lightweight (due to the high force density of pneumatic actuators), impact tolerant, well suited for human interaction (due inherent compliance), stable (due to binary control), and precise. The PCBM technology is a versatile platform that can easily be adapted to abdominal, urological, and neurological interventions. This I2I Phase I proposal aims at developing a fully integrated PCBM prototype including position registration and motion control system for the specific application of MRI-guided transperineal Focal Laser Ablation (FLA) of prostate cancer. The scope is on the positioning system only, not the development of the therapy itself. The objective of this 1 year program is to have some of Canada's top urologists and radio-oncologists to perform MRI-guided instrument insertions in phantoms to evaluate the technology potential. The work builds on a first PCBM prototype that demonstrated an average repeatability as low as 0.5mm and an average accuracy of 1.7mm in open-loop control. With minor optimization to be done in this proposal, the technology can easily reach positioning precision below 1mm, which is well within the capabilities of relevant imaging systems in used today (ultrasound, CT, MRI).