Parallel Cable-Driven Prostate Puncture Robot: Design and Performance Evaluation

Background: The limited workspace and strong magnetic field inside MRI challenge the design of the prostate puncture robot. Simplifying the robot's structure is crucial. Methods: This paper proposes a parallel cable-driven (PCD) prostate puncture robot, and conducts a preliminary material design. The kinematics, statics and stiffness models of the robot are established. The wrench-feasible workspace is also verified. Multibody simulation is used to analyse the robot's performance. Results: Motion accuracy experiments were conducted in both planar and spatial configurations, followed by stiffness performance evaluation. During the phantom puncture experiment, the insertion point exhibited horizontal position errors of 0.35 mm and 0.4 mm. Conclusion: The non-parallel cable-driven design not only simplifies the robotic structure for prostate puncture surgery but also ensures compatibility with strong magnetic fields. Furthermore, the robot exhibits high motion accuracy and superior stiffness performance.