Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
Int J Comput Assist Radiol Surg. 2023 Sep;18(9):1547-1557. doi: 10.1007/s11548-023-02997-w. Epub 2023 Jul 24.
During minimally invasive surgery, surgeons maneuver tools through complex anatomies, which is difficult without the ability to control the position of the tools inside the body. A potential solution for a substantial portion of these procedures is the efficient design and control of a pneumatically actuated soft robot system.
We designed and evaluated a system to control a steerable catheter tip. A macroscale 3D printed catheter tip was designed to have two separately pressurized channels to induce bending in two directions. A motorized hand controller was developed to allow users to control the bending angle while manually inserting the steerable tip. Preliminary characterization of two catheter tip prototypes was performed and used to map desired angle inputs into pressure commands.
The integrated robotic system allowed both a novice and a skilled surgeon to position the steerable catheter tip at the location of cylindrical targets with sub-millimeter accuracy. The novice was able to reach each target within ten seconds and the skilled surgeon within five seconds on average.
This soft robotic system enables its user to simultaneously insert and bend the pneumatically actuated catheter tip with high accuracy and in a short amount of time. These results show promise concerning the development of a soft robotic system that can improve outcomes in minimally invasive interventions.
在微创手术中，外科医生需要通过复杂的解剖结构来操作工具，如果不能控制工具在体内的位置，这将非常困难。对于这些手术的大部分来说，一个潜在的解决方案是设计和控制高效的气动驱动软体机器人系统。
我们设计并评估了一种控制可转向导管尖端的系统。设计了一种宏观 3D 打印的导管尖端，它有两个单独加压的通道，以在两个方向上产生弯曲。开发了一个电动手动控制器，允许用户在手动插入可转向尖端的同时控制弯曲角度。对两个导管尖端原型进行了初步表征，并将期望的角度输入映射到压力命令中。
集成的机器人系统使新手和熟练的外科医生都能够以亚毫米级的精度将可转向导管尖端定位在圆柱形目标的位置。新手平均需要十秒才能到达每个目标，而熟练的外科医生平均需要五秒。
这种气动驱动的软体机器人系统能够让用户在短时间内以高精度同时插入和弯曲导管尖端。这些结果表明，开发一种能够改善微创手术效果的软体机器人系统具有广阔的前景。
