A Dynamical Training and Design Simulator for Active Catheters

• Main Authors: Georges Dumont, Christofer Kuehl
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2008-11-01
• Series: International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems
• Subjects: multi-body modelization; optimization; virtual prototyping; catheter.
• Online Access: http://www.intechopen.com/articles/show/title/a_dynamical_training_and_design_simulator_for_active_catheters

This work addresses the design of an active multi-link micro-catheter actuated by Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) micro actuators. This may be a response to one medical major demand on such devices, which will be useful for surgical explorations and interventions. In this paper, we focus on a training and design simulator dedicated to such catheters. This simulator is based on an original simulation platform (OpenMASK). The catheter is a robotic system, which is evaluated by a dynamical simulation addressing a navigation task in its environment. The design of the prototype and its mechanical model are presented. We develop an interaction model for contact. This model uses a real medical database for which distance cartography is proposed. Then we focus on an autonomous control model based on a multi-agent approach and including the behaviour description of the SMA actuators. Results of mechanical simulations including interaction with the ducts are presented. Furthermore, the interest of such a simulator is presented by applying virtual prototyping techniques for the design optimization. This optimization process is achieved by using genetic algorithms at different stages with respect to the specified task.