A robotic system for percutaneous coronary intervention equipped with a steerable catheter and force feedback function

Purpose of this study is to propose a new robotic system equipped with a steerable catheter for percutaneous coronary intervention. Key design issues of the system are less X-ray exposure, easy sterilization, and convenient user interface. At first, vascular intervention procedure using the robotic system equipped with a steerable catheter are analyzed and compared with the conventional procedure. A two directional steerable catheter with minimum modification of a conventional catheter is developed. Robotic parts which contact the devices were designed to be easily separable from the slave robot for sterilization. Master robots are compactly and intuitively designed to conduct steering, insertion, and rotational motion. One master robot conducts steering of a catheter and the other master robot handles insertion and rotation of a catheter and a guidewire. The master-slave robotic system is evaluated using the phantom. During the phantom experiment, the contact force of the guidewire tip is measured and reflected to the user through the master robot. The system usability was evaluated with respect to task completion time, usefulness of the steerable catheter and haptic interface. It is confirmed through the experiments that the master-slave robotic system with steerable catheter is well designed to help user perform vascular intervention successfully and efficiently.