Development of a novel robotic catheter manipulating system with fuzzy PID control

Manual operation of steerable catheter is inaccurate in minimally invasive surgery, requiring dexterity for efficient manipulation of the catheter, and it exposes the surgeons to intense radiation. The authors' objectives are to develop a robotic catheter manipulating system that replaces the surgeons with high accuracy. Increasing demands for flexibility and fast reactions in a control method, fuzzy control (FC) can play an important role because the experience of experts can be combined in the fuzzy control rules to be implemented in the systems. They present a practical application of a fuzzy PID control to this developed system during the remote operations and compare with the traditional PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative Controllers) control experimentally. The feasibility and effectiveness of the control method are demonstrated. The synchronous manipulation performance with the fuzzy PID control is much better than using the conventional PID control method during the remote operations.