Push force feedback for a kind of robotic catheter navigation system

摘要

Robot-assisted catheterization has been developed for years, however, only a few systems were clinical applied. Especially in conventional catheter operation system, robot-assisted system is hard to be popularized in clinical endovascular intervention. The active catheter technique gained success but conventional catheter can't be substituted in the short term. Current robot-assisted catheterization system typically employs a master-slave architecture. The lack of direct feeling is considered to be the main reason for bad maneuverability of master-slave robots. Moreover, effective haptic feedback is particularly important for surgical robot because the haptic feedback could ensure the safety of operation. It is noted that the haptic feedback of catheterization robot system is different from other surgical robot system. Physicians cannot contact with lesions in a endovascular intervention. They feel the contact between the guidewire and the vessel wall by the resistance on guidewire proximal end. We developed a robot-assisted catheterization system with which physician can feel the resistance on guidewire proximal end during the remote operation. In this paper, we show how this resistance feedback affects the operation by in vitro experiments. And we also discussed the role of feedback on reducing operation risks.