New Harvard catheter robot with haptic vision

A novel article has just appeared in Science Robotics: Fagogenis et al. "Autonomous robotic intracardiac catheter navigation using haptic vision" which generated quite some public attention.

"To show that autonomous navigation is possible, we investigated it in the hardest place to do it—inside the beating heart. We created a robotic catheter that can navigate through the blood-filled heart using wall-following algorithms inspired by positively thigmotactic animals. The catheter uses haptic vision, a hybrid sense using imaging for both touch-based surface identification and force sensing, to accomplish wall following inside the blood-filled heart. Through in vivo animal experiments, we demonstrate that the performance of an autonomously controlled robotic catheter rivaled that of an experienced clinician. Autonomous navigation is a fundamental capability on which more sophisticated levels of autonomy can be built, e.g., to perform a procedure. Similar to the role of automation in a fighter aircraft, such capabilities can free the clinician to focus on the most critical aspects of the procedure while providing precise and repeatable tool motions independent of operator experience and fatigue."

"The team's robotic catheter navigated using an optical touch sensor developed in Dupont's lab, informed by a map of the cardiac anatomy and preoperative scans. The touch sensor uses artificial intelligence (AI) and image processing algorithms to enable the catheter to figure out where it is in the heart and where it needs to go.  

For the demo, the team performed a highly technically demanding procedure known as paravalvular aortic leak closure, which repairs replacement heart valves that have begun leaking around the edges. (The team constructed its own valves for the experiments.) Once the robotic catheter reached the leak location, an experienced cardiac surgeon took control and inserted a plug to close the leak.  

In repeated trials, the robotic catheter successfully navigated to heart valve leaks in roughly the same amount of time as the surgeon (using either a hand tool or a joystick-controlled robot)."

"The robot would need an “optical whisker,” and researchers created one out of the catheter’s camera tip, said study leader Pierre Dupont, chief of pediatric cardiac bioengineering at Boston Children’s Hospital.  

Just as cockroaches navigate along walls and rats reach out with their whiskers, the catheter maps its path through the heart, tapping periodically against the heart's valve and wall ever so lightly — with about the force of a stick of butter sitting in your hand, Dupont said.  

The technology combines the camera's images with machine learning to interpret what tissue it's touching, and how hard it’s touching it.

More details on the Vector blog.

It was covered in LA Time, Healthday, the Robot Report, ECN Mag, Medgadget, etc.