Robotic catheter system

• US 9,161,817 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2010
• Issued: 10/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: St. Jude Medical (Abbott Laboratories Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: St. Jude Medical (Abbott Laboratories Incorporated)
• Inventors: Olson, Eric S., Hauck, John A., Patronik, Nicholas A., Kirschenman, Mark B., Shaquer, Cem, Ganji, Yusof
• Primary Examiner(s): Lucchesi, Nicholas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Snyder, Melissa A
• Application Number:
  US12/751,843
• Publication Number:
  US 20100256558A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,029 Days
• Field of Search: 604/264, 604/528
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/00026 Conductivity or impedance, e.g. of tissue
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/00477 Coupling A61B2017/0046 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/107 Visualisation of planned trajectories or target regions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/301 for introducing or steering flexible instruments inserted into the body, e.g. catheters or endoscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/303 specifically adapted for manipulations within body lumens, e.g. within lumen of gut, spine, or blood vessels
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/305 Details of wrist mechanisms at distal ends of robotic arms
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/741 Glove like input devices, e.g. "data gloves"
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/742 Joysticks
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/064 for measuring force, pressure or mechanical tension
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/372 Details of monitor hardware
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/20 Surgical navigation systems; Devices for tracking or guiding surgical instruments, e.g. for frameless stereotaxis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/25 User interfaces for surgical systems
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/30 Surgical robots
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/37 Master-slave robots A61B34/35 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/71 Manipulators operated by drive cable mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/76 Manipulators having means for providing feel, e.g. force or tactile feedback
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/77 Manipulators with motion or force scaling
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/33 Controlling, regulating or measuring
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/505 Touch-screens; Virtual keyboard or keypads; Virtual buttons; Soft keys; Mouse touches
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2210/125 Heart
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 25/0147 : with movable mechanical means, e.g. pull wires

Abstract

A robotic system for manipulating a catheter with a plurality of steering wires longitudinally situated within a length of the catheter includes a user interface configured to display a view of an anatomical model and to receive one or more user inputs; a catheter manipulator assembly configured to linearly actuate one or more control members of a catheter; and a robotic controller configured to provide a view of an anatomical model to the user interface; accept one or more user inputs from the user interface; register the one or more user inputs to a coordinate system associated with the anatomical model; compute one or more actuator commands from the one or more registered inputs; and cause the catheter manipulator assembly to linearly actuate one or more control members of a catheter in accordance with the computed actuator commands.

Claims

1. A robotic system for manipulating a catheter having a plurality of steering wires longitudinally situated within a length of the catheter, each steering wire connected to a catheter pull ring at or near the distal end of the catheter and connected to a control member at or near the proximal end of the catheter, the robotic system comprising:

a user interface configured to display a view of an anatomical model and to receive one or more user inputs;

a catheter manipulator assembly comprising at least one linearly movable actuator configured to linearly actuate one or more control members of a catheter; and

a robotic controller configured to provide a view of the anatomical model to the user interface;

accept one or more user inputs from the user interface in a first coordinate system;

register the one or more user inputs to a second coordinate system associated with the anatomical model;

compute one or more actuator commands from the one or more registered inputs; and

cause the at least one linearly movable actuator of the catheter manipulator assembly to linearly actuate the one or more control members of the catheter in accordance with the computed actuator commands,

wherein the robotic controller is configured to accept the one or more user inputs corresponding to an interior point of the anatomical model and to linearly actuate the one or more control members in real-time with the one or more user inputs, and

wherein the one or more user inputs from the user interface includes the identification of at least one waypoint corresponding to an interior point of the anatomical model.

2. The robotic system of claim 1, further comprising a positioning system configured to provide an indication of a position of the catheter to the controller.

3. The robotic system of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes an input device and a display device.

4. The robotic system of claim 3, wherein the input device includes a spatially detected glove or stylus.

5. The robotic system of claim 4, wherein the spatially detected glove or stylus is locatable in three dimensional space using a magnetic field.

6. The robotic system of claim 4, wherein the spatially detected glove or stylus is locatable in three dimensional space using an electrostatic field or optical positioning system.

7. The robotic system of claim 1, wherein the user interface is a multi-touch display interface configured to receive touch-based input from a user.

8. The robotic system of claim 7, wherein the multi-touch interface includes displayed on-screen menu buttons configured to activate different functions within the displayed image.

9. The robotic system of claim 8, wherein the functions comprise pan, rotate, zoom, direct movement of the catheter, place lesion markers, place virtual sensors, place automated movement targets, or draw movement lines.

10. The robotic system of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes an input device configured to resemble a traditional catheter handle.

11. The robotic system of claim 1, wherein the user interface is configured to receive one or more inputs made with respect to a displayed third-person view of a catheter and anatomic model.

12. The robotic system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to project the waypoint to the surface of a displayed anatomical model.

13. The robotic system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to compute a movement vector by comparing the location of a representation of the catheter within the anatomical model to the location of the waypoint.

14. The robotic system of claim 1, wherein the linear actuation of the one or more control members of the catheter causes a portion of the catheter to deflect away from a longitudinal axis of the catheter.

15. The robotic system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more control members comprises a slider situated within a robotic catheter device cartridge, and wherein causing the catheter manipulator assembly to linearly actuate the one or more control members of the catheter includes linearly translating one or more fingers of the catheter manipulator assembly in a manner to linearly move the slider block.

18. The robotic system of claim 1, wherein the anatomical model is two-dimensional.

19. The robotic system of claim 1 wherein the robotic controller is configured to accept a user input of a scaling factor to determine the maximum allowable speed of the catheter as a function of the orthogonal distance between the catheter and a nearest cardiac tissue of the anatomical model.

16. A method for robotically controlling a catheter within a cardiac anatomy comprising

providing a view of an anatomical model to a user interface;

accepting one or more user inputs from the user interface in a first coordinate system;

registering the one or more user inputs to a second coordinate system associated with the anatomical model;

computing one or more actuator commands from the one or more registered inputs; and

causing at least one linearly movable actuator of a catheter manipulator assembly to linearly actuate one or more control members of a catheter in accordance with the computed actuator commands and in real-time with the one or more user inputs,

wherein accepting the one or more user inputs includes accepting user inputs corresponding to an interior point of the anatomical model,

wherein the one or more user inputs from the user interface includes the identification of at least one waypoint corresponding to an interior point of the anatomical model, and

wherein causing the at least one linearly movable actuator of a catheter manipulator assembly to linearly actuate includes determining a maximum allowable speed of the catheter as a function of the orthogonal distance between the catheter and a nearest cardiac tissue of the anatomical model.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

registering the one or more user inputs to the second coordinate system associated with the anatomical model through a transformation matrix; and

wherein computing the one or more actuator commands from the one or more registered inputs includes computing an inverse Jacobian Matrix.

20. A robotic system for manipulating a catheter having a plurality of steering wires longitudinally situated within a length of the catheter, each steering wire connected to a catheter pull ring at or near the distal end of the catheter and connected to a control member at or near the proximal end of the catheter, the robotic system comprising:

a user interface configured to display a view of an anatomical model and to receive one or more user inputs;

a catheter manipulator assembly comprising at least one movable actuator configured to actuate one or more control members of a catheter; and

a robotic controller configured to provide a view of the anatomical model to the user interface;

accept one or more user inputs from the user interface in a first coordinate system;

register the one or more user inputs to a second coordinate system associated with the anatomical model;

compute one or more actuator commands from the one or more registered inputs; and

cause the at least one movable actuator of the catheter manipulator assembly to actuate the one or more control members of the catheter in accordance with the computed actuator commands,

wherein the robotic controller is configured to accept the one or more user inputs corresponding to an interior point of the anatomical model and to actuate the one or more control members in real-time with the one or more user inputs, and

wherein the one or more user inputs from the user interface includes the identification of at least one waypoint corresponding to an interior point of the anatomical model.