Modeling and simulation of passive catheter based on piecewise constant curvature method

Endovascular intervention is expected to become increasingly popular in medical practice, both for diagnosis and for surgery. Recently, researches of robotic systems for endovascular surgery assistant have been carried out widely. However, using position based method control the motion of catheter is not smooth and continuous in operation. And the immesurable contact force between the blood vessel and the catheter cause the potential damage. Compared with position based method, push force based method makes the movement of catheter become more smooth and continuous. In this approach, the end-tip information of a passive catheter is essential. Unfortunately, there is no other way to describe the position and attitude of a passive catheter except image-based method in a control system at present. And it is very difficult to acquire the end-tip information of a passive catheter. Therefore, from this perspective, we had to establish a proper passive catheter model for the precise navigation. According to the model, position, attitude of catheter end tip and contact force between the blood vessel and the catheter could be acquired.