Precise bending angle control of hydraulic active catheter by pressure pulse drive

We aimed to develop an active catheter that could be used safely in human blood vessels. We proposed and developed a micro valve for a water pressure-driven system with multi-degrees of freedom, to produce an active catheter that is compact and not driven electrically. In this paper, we proposed a new method that uses pressure pulses to control the bending angle of the active segment. We experimentally verified this control method using the new valve design.