Development of a novel robotic catheter system for endovascular minimally invasive surgery

Utilizing catheters with unchangeable distal tip, traditional endovascular minimally invasive surgery is manually performed by surgeons present in an operating room filled with X-ray radiation. It has many disadvantages, such as poor maneuverability, radiation injury and undesirable interactivity. Thus it is difficult to guarantee the safety and efficiency. In order to improve these limitations, this paper develops a novel robotic catheter system with master-slave control, including the steerable catheter integrated with two magnetic tracking sensors, interventional mechanisms with force feedback and 3D guiding image with the collision test. The results demonstrate that the constructed system can reduce the usage of X-rays; surgeons can be located in the control room away from the operating room in the master-slave way; catheterization can be performed successfully and safely to the target point with high maneuverability.