Abstract
Catheters are commonly used in many medical procedures. These catheters require a high skill to navigate through human blood vessels and also require the use of an X-ray machine to guide the user. Active catheters have been fabricated and studied to increase the dexterity of the catheter, making the catheter much easier to use. Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) have been studied for this application. IPMCs exhibit large deformations under relatively small voltages (<5 V) making IPMCs excellent candidates for this application. One disadvantage of IPMCs is low stiffness, making the tip of the catheter hard to control in a blood stream. Hydraulic powered active catheters have also been studied. These hydraulically powered active catheters offer higher stiffness but are difficult to control. This research aims to combine these two actuation types into a single hybrid actuator. This will potentially create an active catheter capable of precise complex motion that is safe for human use.
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