Development of Disposables and Accessories for ROSES and Their In Vitro Experimentation

This paper describes the development of the disposables and accessories for ROSES (Robotic System for Endovascular Surgery). Initially developed exclusively for transcatheter percutaneous coronary angioplasty, it was later modified, initially leaving the components for angioplasty substantially unchanged to extend its use to endovascular transcatheter surgery. These disposables are used to translate gear rotations into catheter or guide wire advancement or retraction and rotation of their body through friction wheels. The use of a new cart was necessary for endovascular surgery, to which a system to measure forces opposed by the patient’s body to catheter advancement was added. Moreover, since some endovascular catheters present with large diameters, minor mechanical modifications were also performed on the robot actuator (RA), previously defined as a slave, in order to allow large catheters to be pushed, such as those needed for the repair of some big aneurysms or for TAVI. However, in doing this, the possibility of separating the disposables into two components, upper and lower, was found, which allows the extraction of the disposable without having to remove the catheter or guide wire already positioned. Finally, the disposables, whose development is illustrated here, were subjected to various versions and tests and the results are reported.