Haptic Feedback and Dynamic Active Constraints for Robot-Assisted Endovascular Catheterization

Robotic and computer assistance can bring significant benefits to endovascular procedures in terms of precision and stability, reduced radiation doses, improved comfort and access to difficult and tortuous anatomy. However, the design of current commercially available platforms tends to alter the natural bedside manipulation skills of the operator, so that the manually acquired experience and dexterity are not well utilized. Furthermore, most of these systems lack of haptic feedback, preventing their acceptance and limiting the clinical usability. In this paper a new robotic platform for endovascular catheterization, the CathBot, is presented. It is an ergonomic master-slave system with navigation system and integrated vision-based haptic feedback, designed to maintain the natural bedside skills of the vascular surgeon. Unlike previous work reported in literature, dynamic motion tracking of both the vessel walls the catheter tip is incorporated to create dynamic active constraints. The system was evaluated through a combined quantitative and qualitative user study simulating catheterization tasks on a phantom. Forces exerted on the phantom were measured. The results showed a 70% decrease in mean force and 61% decrease in maximum force when force feedback is provided. This research provides the first integration of vision-based dynamic active constraints within an ergonomic robotic catheter manipulator. The technological advances presented here, demonstrates that vision-based haptic feedback can improve the effectiveness, precision, and safety of robot-assisted endovascular procedures.