Pressure Pulse Drive: A Control Method for the Precise Bending of Hydraulic Active Catheters

Our group has been developing a compact, active catheter that can be safely used in human blood vessels. The catheter is driven not by electronic mechanisms, but by a water pressure system with micro valves for multidegrees of freedom. The active catheter is composed of a soft, flexible, MRI-compatible material. In this paper, we propose what we call “pressure pulse drive,” a new control method to precisely bend the active segment. We design a new set of optimized valves for this method and experimentally verify the precise bending motion and simultaneous drive of the two active catheter segments.