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Our method explicitly considers uncertainty in needle motion due to patient differences and the difficulty in predicting needle\/tissue interaction. The planner computes optimal steering actions to maximize the probability that the needle will reach the desired target. Given a medical image with segmented obstacles and target, our method formulates the planning problem as a Markov decision process based on an efficient discretization of the state space, models motion uncertainty using probability distributions and computes optimal steering actions using dynamic programming. This approach only requires parameters that can be directly extracted from images, allows fast computation of the optimal needle entry point and enables intra-operative optimal steering of the needle using the pre-computed dynamic programming look-up table. We apply the method to generate motion plans for steerable needles to reach targets inaccessible to stiff needles, and we illustrate the importance of considering uncertainty during motion plan optimization.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/0278364908097661","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2008,11,24]],"date-time":"2008-11-24T10:04:00Z","timestamp":1227521040000},"page":"1361-1374","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":153,"title":["Motion Planning Under Uncertainty for Image-guided Medical Needle Steering"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"27","author":[{"given":"Ron","family":"Alterovitz","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3175, USA,"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Michael","family":"Branicky","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA,"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ken","family":"Goldberg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Industrial Engineering and OperationsResearch, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Universityof California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA,"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2008,11,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"atypb1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1137\/S0097539700374550"},{"key":"atypb2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.1040.0287"},{"key":"atypb3","volume-title":"Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)","author":"Alterovitz, R."},{"key":"atypb4","volume-title":"Proceedings IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)","author":"Alterovitz, R."},{"key":"atypb5","first-page":"1793","volume":"2","author":"Alterovitz, R.","year":"2003","journal-title":"Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)"},{"key":"atypb6","first-page":"3337","volume":"3","author":"Alterovitz, R.","year":"2003","journal-title":"Proceedings of the IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)"},{"key":"atypb7","first-page":"19","volume":"1","author":"Alterovitz, R.","year":"2003","journal-title":"Medicine Meets Virtual Reality"},{"key":"atypb8","volume-title":"Proceedings of the IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)","author":"Bakker, B."},{"key":"atypb9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/0004-3702(94)00011-O"},{"key":"atypb10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0005-1098(98)00178-2"},{"key":"atypb11","volume-title":"Dynamic Programming and Optimal Control","author":"Bertsekas, D.P.","year":"2000","edition":"2"},{"key":"atypb12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00270450"},{"key":"atypb13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/9.654885"},{"key":"atypb14","volume-title":"Proceedings IEEE Conference on Decision and Control","author":"Branicky, M."},{"key":"atypb15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-540-40899-4_95"},{"key":"atypb16","volume-title":"Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms, and Implementations","author":"Choset, H.","year":"2005"},{"key":"atypb17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/9.133184"},{"key":"atypb18","volume-title":"Proceedings of the International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society","author":"Cleary, K."},{"key":"atypb19","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI)","author":"Crouch, J.R."},{"key":"atypb20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/0004-3702(94)00086-G"},{"key":"atypb21","unstructured":"DiMaio, S.P., Kacher, D.F., Ellis, R.E., Fichtinger, G., Hata, N., Zientara, G.P., Panych, L.P., Kikinis, R. and Jolesz, F.A. 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