Development of automatic puncture robot into artificial blood vessel using RC servo and IR camera

Abstract

This study proposes an automatic puncture robot into artificial blood vessel with features of automatic selection and 3-dimensional position estimation of blood vessel.Selection of blood vessel is achieved by using the length, linearity and thickness of blood vessel image. Three-dimensional position of blood vessel is estimated from a 3D linear equation which is obtained from an intersection of two 3D planes through 2D image of blood vessel.Puncture robot is constructed using one slide mechanism,four RC servo motors and one linear actuator.The robot has a 4-degree-of-freedom arm to control the position and direction of needle.Linear actuator advances the needle straight to the artificial blood vessel.Artificial skin with blood vessel is manufactured so that the camera image of it is similar to the human skin.Experimental results show that the automatic puncture is confirmed because reverse blood is observed by pulling the syringe.