This Project is funded by TU Delft as part of the cohesion projects grants

In cardiovascular interventions, in order to safely reach the heart,  catheters  (and guidewires) need to easily follow the curves in the  vascular  system,  while  creating  as  little  friction  as  possible to avoid damaging the blood vessel wall.  While low friction is beneficial during navigation, it makes holding the catheter at a specific location in open spaces, such as inside the heart, difficult during the execution of the procedure (thus, limiting the force transmission capability and the stability). The aim of this project is to develop a novel class of catheters whose frictional properties are controllable and can be adjusted depending on the phase of the catheterization procedure using the ultrasonic friction modulation technique which has been widely adopted in surface haptics applications.