Abstract: A needle placement manipulator includes, a pair of rotary guides arranged at a slanted angle with respect to each other, a needle holder which holds a needle along a needle holder axis, and a base body on which the guides are supported. The needle holder axis and each axis of the rotary guides cross at a single point located at or below the base body. The base body is configured to be attached to a patient or to an RF-coil.

Abstract: Exemplary methods, apparatus, and systems are provided for automated detection and registration of medical images using fiducial markers and processing algorithms. By either clustering fiducial markers having a different number, size, shape, configuration, or material property or by using fiducial markers arranged in a ring shape, wherein their arrangement is asymmetric, and then applying a feature extraction to extract the fiducial marker objects, and registering the fiducial marker objects with a model of the fiducial frame, automatic registration can be achieved.

Abstract: An apparatus including a tendon-driven device such as an endoscope comprising a bendable body, a tendon attached to and extending a length of said body, and an actuator that will actuate said tendon based on a control signal from a controller. The controller is configured to send said control signal to said actuator and comprises a forward-kinematic-mapping unit that estimates an angular displacement, wherein the kinematic-mapping unit is configured for: providing a tension value of the tendon to obtain a desired angular displacement wherein the tension has a nonlinear relationship with the desired angular displacement based on information of friction where the tension is greater that would be calculated without including the effect of friction. The friction coefficient may be determined as it changes over time.