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 d
esign of
current
commercially available platform
s 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 integrate
d
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 i
n 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
advan
ces presented here, demonstrates
that vision
-
b
ased haptic
feedback can improve the effectiveness, precision, and safety of
robot
-
assisted endovascular procedures.