A force feedback system for endovascular catheterisation

Robotically assisted catheterisation has attracted significant interest in recent years. However, few designs have made full use of the extensive experience and skills that interventional radiologists have acquired from conventional catheter navigation. Additionally, limited research has been conducted in quantifying the effectiveness of haptic feedback for catheterisation procedures. This paper presents a novel master-slave force feedback system for endovascular catheterisation that can be used in a natural setting with enhanced ergonomics. The system has been validated with detailed laboratory experiments and a comprehensive user study. The performance of the system was compared against manual catheterisation by measuring the forces exerted on a vascular phantom. The results showed a 76% reduction in the mean force applied and a 55% reduction in the maximum force over the course of the study, indicating that the force feedback system reduced the magnitude and duration of force exerted during a simulated endovascular procedure. This research provides important insights into the design of compact and ergonomic robotic catheter manipulators incorporating effective real-time force feedback for intraoperative navigation.