Abstract
A study is currently being conducted on a robotic system designed to assist surgeons during neuroendovascular interventions. To navigate the robotic-assisted system through the vascular artery network, a guidewire is employed. However, the existing commercial robotic system lacks a force feedback mechanism, which could potentially pose safety concerns due to the contact force or friction between the guidewire and the vascular artery. Since the entire procedure is captured by X-ray imaging, it is feasible to estimate the force exerted on the artery by analyzing the shape of the guidewire. This article proposes a force estimation method that relies on the changes in the guidewire’s shape during the contact process. By examining its curvature, the contact force and friction force of the guidewire can be calculated. The turning points on the curvature curve enable the determination of the contact positions for multi-point loading. The effectiveness of the proposed shape-based force estimation method is validated through Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations, which demonstrate a good approximation. The error between the actual and estimated forces at most contact points is approximately 10%. Furthermore, the proposed method is further substantiated through an experimental test, where it is observed that the accuracy of curvature calculation is directly linked to the contour fitting process. Improved results in curvature calculation are achieved by employing more points for each segment fitting.
