Teleoperated Navigation of a Robotically Steerable Guidewire under Fluoroscopy in a Flow Environment

A chronic total occlusion (CTO) is a complete blockage that impedes blood flow in the coronary artery. Minimally invasive procedures for treating CTOs typically involve manually steering a guidewire to the occlusion. However, navigating the guidewire throughout arteries can be challenging due to bifurcations and narrow vessels. This paper introduces a novel robotic guidewire design that is specifically engineered to navigate the aortic bifurcation, into peripheral branches of the right common iliac artery. We present a detailed description of the design and outline the procedure for determining the notch parameters to reduce motion coupling between the flexible joints. Lastly, we demonstrate remote control of the guidewire as it traverses through a phantom vasculature under different pulsatile flow rates to validate the feasibility of the guidewire.