Vascular Load Reduction Control based on Operator's Skill for Catheter Insertion

This paper proposes a method for vascular load reduction control that operates in regard to the load on contact points of catheter and blood vessels in catheter insertion. We make an extracorporeal estimation of the load on the contact points, and perform control with a robot arm to reduce the estimated load. We aim to reduce the vascular load through extracting and vibrating action as actually applied by operators. In order to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method, we conduct an evaluation experiment where a wire is inserted in a tube that simulates a blood vessel. As a result of the experiment we were able to estimate the force on the contact points with an accuracy of an estimation error of 9.1%. Moreover, through vibration control we were able to reduce the load to below 0.1[N] for places where there was an overload of more than 0.5[N]. For vibration control, the experiment also enabled us to derive an effective parameter adjustment method to remove obstructions.