  In this study we present a kinematic approach to modeling needle insertion
into soft tissues. The kinematic approach allows the presentation of the
problem as Dirichlet-type (i.e. driven by enforced motion of boundaries) and
therefore weakly sensitive to unknown properties of the tissues and
needle-tissue interaction. The parameters used in the kinematic approach are
straightforward to determine from images. Our method uses Meshless Total
Lagrangian Explicit Dynamics (MTLED) framework to compute soft tissue
deformations. The proposed scheme was validated against experiments of needle
insertion into silicone gel samples. We also present a simulation of needle
insertion into the brain demonstrating the method's insensitivity to assumed
mechanical properties of tissue.
