{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T15:49:21Z","timestamp":1787068161552,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"World Scientific Pub Co Pte Ltd","issue":"03n04","funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100012645","name":"Kentucky Spinal Cord and Head Injury Research Trust","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100012645","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J. Med. Robot. Res."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:p> Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) electrodes are traditionally placed in the dorsal epidural space to stimulate the dorsal column fibers for pain therapy. Recently, SCS has gained attention in restoring gait. However, the motor fibers triggering locomotion are located in the ventral and lateral spinal cord. Currently, SCS electrodes are steered manually, making it difficult to navigate them to the lateral and ventral motor fibers in the spinal cord. In this work, we propose a helically micro-machined continuum robot that can bend in a helical shape when subjected to actuation tendon forces. Using a stiff outer tube and adding translational and rotational degrees of freedom, this helical continuum robot can perform follow-the-leader (FTL) motion. We propose a kinematic model to relate tendon stroke and geometric parameters of the robot\u2019s helical shape to its acquired trajectory and end-effector position. We evaluate the proposed kinematic model and the robot\u2019s FTL motion capability experimentally. The stroke-based method, which links tendon stroke values to the robot\u2019s shape, showed inaccuracies with a 19.84[Formula: see text]mm deviation and an RMSE of 14.42[Formula: see text]mm for 63.6[Formula: see text]mm of robot\u2019s length bending. The position-based method, using kinematic equations to map joint space to task space, performed better with a 10.54[Formula: see text]mm deviation and an RMSE of 8.04[Formula: see text]mm. Follow-the-leader experiments showed deviations of 11.24[Formula: see text]mm and 7.32[Formula: see text]mm, with RMSE values of 8.67[Formula: see text]mm and 5.18[Formula: see text]mm for the stroke-based and position-based methods, respectively. Furthermore, end-effector trajectories in two FTL motion trials are compared to confirm the robot\u2019s repeatable behavior. Finally, we demonstrate the robot\u2019s operation on a 3D-printed spinal cord phantom model. <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1142\/s2424905x25500035","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,2]],"date-time":"2025-06-02T00:18:16Z","timestamp":1748823496000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["ExoNav II: Design of a Robotic Tool with Follow-the-Leader Motion Capability for Lateral and Ventral Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS)"],"prefix":"10.1142","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-1609-2779","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Behnam","family":"Moradkhani","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Healthcare Robotics and Telesurgery (HeaRT) Laboratory, J. B. Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8579-1443","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pejman","family":"Kheradmand","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Healthcare Robotics and Telesurgery (HeaRT) Laboratory, J. B. Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-0658-5406","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Harshith","family":"Jella","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Healthcare Robotics and Telesurgery (HeaRT) Laboratory, J. B. Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0005-0149-9477","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Joseph","family":"Klein","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Healthcare Robotics and Telesurgery (HeaRT) Laboratory, J. B. Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1463-3338","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ajmal","family":"Zemmar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Healthcare Robotics and Telesurgery (HeaRT) Laboratory, J. B. Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA"},{"name":"Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6291-3492","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yash","family":"Chitalia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Healthcare Robotics and Telesurgery (HeaRT) Laboratory, J. B. Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA"},{"name":"Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"219","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"S2424905X25500035BIB001","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(21)00794-7"},{"key":"S2424905X25500035BIB002","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bas.2021.100301"},{"issue":"4","key":"S2424905X25500035BIB003","volume":"13","author":"Chalif J. I.","year":"2024","journal-title":"J. Clinic. Med."},{"key":"S2424905X25500035BIB004","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3171\/CASE24155"},{"key":"S2424905X25500035BIB005","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1227\/NEU.0b013e3182181eed"},{"issue":"4","key":"S2424905X25500035BIB006","first-page":"353","volume":"27","author":"Log\u00e9 D.","year":"2002","journal-title":"Region. 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