Haptic virtual fixture for robotic cardiac catheter navigation.

Area of Science:

• Medical Robotics
• Image-Guided Interventions
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Catheter interventions carry risks of tissue perforation due to excessive manipulation force.
• Real-time imaging like X-ray fluoroscopy provides vessel structure and catheter tip position data.
• Existing methods lack direct, real-time guidance to prevent catastrophic collisions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and experimentally validate a vision-assisted control method for safer catheter manipulation.
• To implement a forbidden-region virtual fixture (FRVF) technique integrated with robotic catheter systems.
• To provide clinicians with real-time haptic feedback to avoid vessel wall collisions.

Main Methods:

• A master-slave robotic platform for cardiac catheterization was utilized.
• A vessel phantom model and digital optical camera were used for simulated intervention experiments.
• Image processing techniques segmented the vessel and catheter tip, calculating distances to define a 'forbidden region'.

Main Results:

• The FRVF technique successfully defined safe catheter manipulation boundaries.
• A virtual force generation algorithm provided haptic feedback to the user upon entering the forbidden region.
• Image filtering and segmentation accurately identified the catheter tip and vessel wall.

Conclusions:

• The developed FRVF technique offers valuable auxiliary information for clinicians.
• This method enhances the safety of catheter manipulation during cardiac catheterization procedures.
• Vision-assisted control significantly reduces the risk of catheter-induced vessel injury.