Mohammad Ali Tavallaei1, 2, Yogesh Thakur3, Syed Haider1, Maria Drangova1, 4
1Imaging Research Laboratories, Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada; 2Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; 3Radiology, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; 4Medical Biophysics, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
An MR compatible master-slave robot for catheter navigation is described. The robot uses a master/slave approach, where the motions of a catheter manipulated by the interventionalist are measured by the master, an embedded system sends commands to a pair of ultrasonic motors and an MR compatible manipulator replicates the interventionalists motions on a patient catheter within the magnet bore. The accuracy of the system in remotely controlling the position of the catheter in the magnet, its time delay and the effect of the system on image SNR is evaluated. This robot promises to facilitate MRI guided catheterization procedures.
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