Augmentation of safety in teleoperation system for intravascular neurosurgery: a new control strategy for force display based on the variable impedance characterization

A catheter is one of the medical tools for intravascular neurosurgeries. However, to control a catheter in narrow and complex blood vessels is a very difficult task, so there are not many surgeons who can operate a catheter appropriately. Moreover, these surgeons are exposed to X-ray radiation when they perform the operation. A solution to these problems is a telesurgery system. There are, however, some problems in telesurgery system. In this paper, we focus on the problem of operativity involved in a teleoperation system, and propose a new control strategy to display forces which are measured between a slave arm and the environment based on the variable impedance characterization of the master arm