Simultaneous Shape and Tip Force Sensing for the COAST Guidewire Robot

Placement of catheters in minimally invasive cardiovascular procedures is preceded by navigating to the target lesion with a guidewire. Traversing through tortuous vascular pathways can be challenging without precise tip control, potentially resulting in the damage or perforation of blood vessels. To improve guidewire navigation, this letter presents 3D shape reconstruction and tip force sensing for the
CO
axially
A
ligned
ST
eerable (COAST) guidewire robot using a triplet of adhered single core fiber Bragg grating sensors routed centrally through the robot's slender structure. Additionally, several shape reconstruction algorithms are compared, and shape measurements are utilized to enable tip force sensing. Demonstration of the capabilities of the robot is shown in free air where the shape of the robot is reconstructed with average errors less than 2 mm at the guidewire tip, and the magnitudes of forces applied to the tip are estimated with an RMSE of 0.027 N or less.