Author: Dimitri Lezcano

This is a repository for publishing the needle shape for the Sensorized Needle Robot project in collaboration with Brigham Women's Hospital.

The needle frame's origin is set to be the end of the insertion needle guide. The orientation of the needle frame is given by

• MATLAB R2021a
• ROS Toolbox
• Optimization Toolbox
• Needle Shape Publisher Python Package

To install the python dependencies, in your cloned repo, run the command:

pip install -r ./requirements.txt

NeedleShapePublisher class

• node of the needle shape publisher

Needle Parameters

• needle.paramFile: the sensorized needle configuration parameter file.
• needle.serialNumber: (Read-Only) the needle's serial number that is loaded
• needle.length: (Read-Only) the entire length of the needle
• needle.channels: (Read-Only) the number of Fiber optic channels embedded in the needle
• needle.activeAreas: (Read-Only) the number of active areas embedded in the needle
• needle.activeAreas.weights: (Read-Only) the reliability weights for each of the needle's active areas
• needle.activeAreas.locations: (Read-Only) the locations (from the tip of the needle) of each of the active areas
• needle.shape_type: (Read-Only, Unused) the configuration of the needle

Shape Sensing Parameters

• needle.sensor.numberSignals: How many signals to collect per wavelength update (Default = 200)
• needle.optimizer.initial_kappa_c: The inital $\kappa_c$ guess to start with (Default = 0.002)
• needle.optimizer.initial_w_init: The inital $\omega_{init}$ guess to start with (Default = [needle.optimizer.initial_kappa_c; 0; 0])
• needle.optimizer.max_iterations: The maximium number of iterations to reach convergence for shape-sensing (Default = 15) ### Subscribers * /stage/state/needle_pose: "geometry_msgs/msg/PoseStamped" of the needle pose in the jig
• /needle/sensors/processed: "std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray" of the sensorized needle's calibrated signal shifts
• /subject/state/entry_point: "std_msgs/msg/PointStamped" the current entry point of the needle in the patient

• /stage/state/needle_pose: "geometry_msgs/msg/PoseStamped" of the needle pose in the jig
• /needle/sensors/processed: "std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray" of the sensorized needle's calibrated signal shifts
• /subject/state/entry_point: "std_msgs/msg/PointStamped" the current entry point of the needle in the patient

• /needle/state/kappac: "std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray" the $\kappa_c$ measurements for all of the layers (currently supported for 2-layer insertions.) for the current shape.
• /needle/state/winit: "std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray" a 3D vector of $\omega_{init}$ for the current shape.
• /needle/state/curvatures: "std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray" an array of 3D vectors publishing the curvatures measured at each of the active areas.
• /needle/state/current_shape: "geometry_msgs/msg/PoseArray" the pose array of the needle shape in 0.5 mm increments
• /needle/state/predicted: "geometry_msgs/msg/PoseArray" the predicted pose array of the needle shape in 0.5 mm increments (NOT IMPLEMENTED)

*** Please note, that the shape-sensing node must have the topic /needle/sensors/processed topic published in order to publish any signals. ** *

Example of launch the multi-threaded shape sensing needle using launch file

$ ros2 launch needle_shape_publisher       

sensorized_shapesensing_needle_decomposed.launch.py \
needleParamFile:=needle_data/needle_3CH_4AA/needle_params_2021-08-16_Jig-Calibration_weighted_weights.json \
numSignals:=200 optimMaxIterations:=15

To launch the files, the arguments to use are:

• needleParamFile: (Required) the needle parameter JSON file that describes the sensorized needle.
• numSignals: (Optional, Default=200) the number of signals to gather before publishing curvatures
• optimMaxIterations: (Optional, Default=15) the maximum number of optimization iterations. The lower, the faster the needle shape publishing will be, however, this may limit accuracy.

There is also a single-threaded launch file with the same format as the multi-threaded launch file using the sensorized_shapesensing_needle.launch.py file.