A ROS2-based Testbed Environment for Endovascular Robotic Systems

Developing autonomous endovascular robotic systems requires physical testbeds to test control algorithms. Typically, such testbeds comprise of several hard- and software components along with a way of having these components communicate with each other. Building such a testbed is a multidisciplinary task which can be beyond the scope of expertise for research groups. The goal of this work is to facilitate setting up such testbeds in two ways: First, we propose a testbed architecture that allows to develop tracking, control and instrument manipulation systems separately by utilizing the ROS2 communication protocol. Secondly, we present a reliable yet straightforward to implement tracking algorithm for endovascular instruments that is built using only open-source software packages. The tracking algorithm is evaluated using both video camera and x-ray imaging and is found to meet the requirements for real time control algorithms. Furthermore, we show an example of the proposed modular testbed architecture as it is used in our lab. Both the modular testbed architecture and the open-source tracking algorithm may serve as helpful building blocks for other researchers in the field seeking to evaluate their control algorithms on physical testbeds.