A Compact Top-Loading Robot for Endovascular Interventions: Design, Control and Evaluation

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Article Summary

Robot-assisted endovascular intervention can potentially reduce radiation exposure, improve surgeon ergonomics, enable telesurgery, support active assistance and autonomy, and enhance procedural precision. However, existing systems often suffer from limited procedural coverage because constrained patient-side setups, restricted flexibility, and complex instrument exchange hinder clinical workflow integration. This work presents a compact robotic system for endovascular interventions that enables continuous translational and rotational manipulation of standard endovascular instruments. The system consists of two alternating carts with pneumatically actuated membrane grippers integrated into rotating gripper gears. Its top-loading design allows rapid exchange of instruments such as guidewires and catheters without changing the robotic setup. A leader-follower control strategy enables continuous motion despite the finite stroke of each cart. The system was evaluated in motion-tracking experiments with guidewires and catheters and in an in vitro vascular phantom. The motion-tracking experiments showed generally smooth translational and rotational motion profiles. Across all tested guidewire and catheter experiments, the mean relative tracking errors were 3.6% for translational motion and 4.1% for rotational motion. In the vascular phantom, robot-assisted navigation reached the target in most trials, demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed manipulation concept under in vitro conditions. The presented robotic system demonstrates technical feasibility for continuous manipulation of standard endovascular instruments in bench-top and in vitro experiments. The compact top-loading design may ease instrument exchange and clinical workflow integration. Future work will focus on improving gripping performance, actuation speed, force feedback, and evaluation in more clinically realistic settings.

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