Brumfiel Timothy A, Konda Revanth, Malhotra Nidhi, Desai Jaydev P
Medical Robotics and Automation (RoboMed) Laboratory, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA USA.
Npj Robot. 2025;3(1):21. doi: 10.1038/s44182-025-00029-0. Epub 2025 Jul 10.
Endovascular interventions typically begin with the placement of a guidewire. Guidewire placement is challenging due to tortuous anatomy and the lack of steerability at the guidewire tip. Navigation often requires several guidewires with different stiffnesses to ensure the target is safely reached. This results in longer procedure times, extended radiation exposure to patients, and higher healthcare costs. To address these challenges, we present the design, modeling, and control of a tendon-driven robotically steerable guidewire with controllable stiffness along its proximal segment through a proposed motion control scheme. Models to capture the motion of the guidewire are presented and image feedback is utilized to achieve closed-loop control. The proposed controller exhibited maximum deflection RMSE of 1.82° and 0.70° for the distal and stiffening joints, respectively. The stiffening joint achieved the desired stiffnesses with a maximum RMSE of 1.9 × 10 Nm. Thus, the methods presented in this paper demonstrate the potential to use a single guidewire in a procedure.
血管内介入治疗通常从放置导丝开始。由于解剖结构曲折以及导丝尖端缺乏可操纵性，导丝放置具有挑战性。导航通常需要几根具有不同刚度的导丝，以确保安全到达目标。这导致手术时间延长、患者辐射暴露增加以及医疗成本提高。为应对这些挑战，我们通过提出的运动控制方案，展示了一种肌腱驱动的可机器人操纵导丝的设计、建模和控制，该导丝沿其近端段具有可控刚度。提出了用于捕捉导丝运动的模型，并利用图像反馈实现闭环控制。所提出的控制器在远端关节和加硬关节处的最大偏转均方根误差分别为1.82°和0.70°。加硬关节实现了所需的刚度，最大均方根误差为1.9×10 Nm。因此，本文提出的方法证明了在手术中使用单一导丝的潜力。
