Nitinol stabilization device for beating-heart procedures
Embargo Date
2027-01-28
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
The current tools used in transcatheter procedures for interventional cardiology are often limited to one or two degrees of freedom as well as in their distal control, dexterity, and force output. These shortcomings greatly restrict which procedures can be translated from open-heart to transcatheter methods. To address these shortcomings, Rogatinsky et al. of the Morphable Biorobotics Laboratory (MBL) developed an interventional robot comprising a soft stacked balloon actuator (SBA) manipulator and a pop-up stabilization mechanism. The stabilization plays a critical role for the robot by moving the device fulcrum closer to the procedure site as well as creates a fixed reference point for the soft manipulator. The stabilization allows for greater mechanical leverage, force transmission, and predictable, controllable movement. This thesis draws inspiration from the stabilization mechanism from Rogatinsky et al. and presents a new stabilization design that can be successfully deployed in in vivo tests. This new design bears a segmented backbone, new pop-up geometry, different material, and an intuitive actuation system. This overall design allows the robot to navigate vasculature curves, make it robust against the unpredictability of the in vivo setting, increase the device’s mechanical and deployment failure threshold, and limit user error, respectively while matching and outperforming the initial design in respect to axial and radial perturbation resistance, and absence of vessel occlusion. These results allow the overall prototype to complete in vivo tests, a necessary step for product development toward clinical viability.
Description
2025