The Design of Endovascular Robots for Cardiac Interventions: A Survey

Abstract

The paper presents a survey of modern robots for percutaneous coronary interventions. It covers papers published before October 2024. The robotic systems introduced in these papers are compared by their design, tool manipulation principles, surgical tools compatibility, and human–machine interfaces, including types of feedback. The paper provides an overview of all main design approaches ever implemented in percutaneous coronary intervention robotics and critically analyzes their pros and cons. The survey covers 62 endovascular robotic systems (11 commercial and 51 academic) and 23 endovascular robotic tools, making it the most representative to date to the best of our knowledge. All of these solutions have been implemented at least as prototypes, while some of them have been tested in vivo and even reached clinical practice. In the discussion section, we critically analyze the known field experience with the use of the CorPath GRX (one of the most popular commercial systems currently used in several hospitals around the world), discuss the reasons for the insufficient spread of robotic endovascular surgery and propose a vision for changing this trend. This survey is intended primarily for engineers designing new medical robotic systems. However, it will also be of interest to endovascular surgeons to help them better understand the trade‐offs of both the products already in the market and the promising solutions that will be available in the future.