Robotic Catheters

The field of biomedical engineering is constantly evolving as researchers explore new materials and technologies to improve patient outcomes. Catheters are commonly used in both minimally invasive surgery and diagnostics, and most of them are externally and manually guided. The main goal of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of the art in robotic catheters. After describing the conventional catheterization procedure and highlighting robotic solutions, different classifications of robotic catheters in terms of steering and driving mechanisms are reviewed, providing some examples in each case. The proof-of-concept of our current developments on robotic catheters with autonomous navigation is also presented.