Bloemberg Jette, van der Wel Mario, Sakes Aimée, Breedveld Paul
Bio-Inspired Technology (BITE) Group, Department of BioMechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands.
Department of Electronic and Mechanical Support Division, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2025 Jul 1;20(7):e0326584. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0326584. eCollection 2025.
In percutaneous interventions, long and thin needles are used to reach deep target locations within the body. However, inserting a long and thin needle into the tissue can cause needle buckling, resulting in poor control of the needle's trajectory and reduced targeting accuracy. In nature, the female parasitic wasp prevents the buckling of her long and slender ovipositor through a self-propelled motion. This study presents a stationary actuation system that can advance a wasp-inspired self-propelled needle consisting of seven 0.3-mm stainless steel rods with a theoretically unlimited insertion length. Based on the pencil lead advance mechanism in mechanical pencils that advances the pencil lead at a fixed increment when the pencil button is pushed, our actuation system advances the seven needle segments that comprise our needle by locking, advancing, releasing, and retracting the advance mechanisms. Experimental evaluation demonstrated that the actuation system successfully executes these actions, enabling step-by-step propulsion of the needle segments in gelatin-based tissue-mimicking phantoms. Moreover, the needle achieved mean motion efficiencies of 98 ± 2%, 68 ± 5%, and 57 ± 7% in air, 5-wt% gelatin, and 10-wt% gelatin, respectively, over 15 actuation cycles. This actuation system prototype, which is based on a mechanical pencil, is a step forward in developing self-propelled needles for targeting deep tissue structures.
在经皮介入手术中，细长的针用于抵达体内较深的目标位置。然而，将细长的针插入组织会导致针发生弯曲，从而使针的轨迹控制不佳，靶向精度降低。在自然界中，雌性寄生蜂通过自推进运动防止其细长的产卵器发生弯曲。本研究提出了一种固定驱动系统，该系统可推进一种受黄蜂启发的自推进针，这种针由七根0.3毫米的不锈钢杆组成，理论上插入长度不受限制。基于机械铅笔中的铅笔芯推进机制，即按下铅笔按钮时铅笔芯以固定增量前进，我们的驱动系统通过锁定、推进、释放和缩回推进机制来推进构成我们的针的七个针段。实验评估表明，该驱动系统成功执行了这些动作，能够在基于明胶的组织模拟体模中逐步推进针段。此外，在15个驱动周期内，该针在空气中、5重量%明胶和10重量%明胶中的平均运动效率分别为98±2%、68±5%和57±7%。这种基于机械铅笔的驱动系统原型是开发用于靶向深部组织结构的自推进针方面的一个进步。
