A haptic interface design for a VR-based unskilled doctor training system in Vascular Interventional Surgery

Vascular Interventional Surgery (VIS) is a minimally invasive surgery technique (MIS) where guidewires and catheters are steered in the vascular system under X-ray imaging. In order to perform these procedures, a radiologist has to be correctly trained to master hand-eye coordination, instrument manipulation and procedure protocols. A tele-operative robotic catheter master system was designed for vascular interventional surgery, to reduce radiation-exposure times, and afford unskilled surgeons the opportunity to learn basic catheter/guidewire skills, while allowing experienced physicians to perform surgeries cooperatively. This paper focuses on the requirements, design and prototyping of the haptic device and the translational and rotational measurement part dedicated to catheters. Two cameras are used to track the translational and rotational displacements of the catheter in real time for the contactless measurement and four permanent magnets and coils are applied to generate the Ampere force in order to realize the haptic feedback. During the training process, novice doctors can drive the real catheter directly and carry out the intervention with haptic interfaces with force feedback, which provides the surgeon with a sense of touch. Additionally, the proposed master system can be used as the controller for not only the virtual reality training system but also the catheter manipulator of a slave system.