Performance Evaluation of a Vascular Interventional Surgery Robotic System with Visual-Based Force Feedback

Abstract

Robot-assisted systems for vascular interventional surgery (VIS) have the advantages of high precision and an improved operating environment for the surgeon. However, the current robot-assisted systems cannot completely replace human beings in controlling interventional devices—for example, rapid guidewire/catheter replacement and force feedback. In the face of these challenges, the robot-assisted system presented in this article can better solve the above problems. The experiments for the guidewire and catheter were designed and performed separately based on the developed robot-assisted system. The experimental results show that the participants can use the system to manipulate the guidewire and catheter to reach the designated blood vessel position. Based on the experiments for the catheter, for the first time, the reciprocating manipulation method with visual-based force feedback (VFF) was used for experimental evaluation. The experimental results show that this method can effectively avoid the buckling phenomenon of the catheter; the VFF plays a vital role in improving the safety of the operation and provides an operational assessment of VIS safety. In addition, this article puts forward the evaluation index for maximum pull force (MPLF) and force fluctuation, which provides an essential reference for enriching the evaluation of VIS technical skills.