NEEDLE INSERTIONS MODELLING : IDENTIFIABILITY AND LIMITATIONS

Soft tissues modeling is a very present preoccupation in different scientific fields, from computer simulation to biomechanics or medical robotics. In this article, we consider the interaction of a needle with living tissues, which is a particularly complex modeling problem since it is characterized by inhomogeneity and nonlinearity properties. We propose a robust method to online estimate the interaction between living tissues and a surgical needle. The ability to obtain physically consistent models during in vivo insertions is discussed.