A Concentric Multi-Backbone Robot for Transaortic Mitral Valve Access

Mitral Valve Replacement (MVR) remains invasive, as both transapical and transseptal approaches require myocardial or septal puncture, which may result in bleeding and structural trauma. In this paper, we propose a novel concentric multi-backbone continuum robot enabling a fully endovascular transfemoral transaortic pathway to the mitral valve. The robot architecture allows the generation of complex planar and 3D helical shapes through coordinated bending, torsion, and axial backbone deformation. The developed prototype (7 mm outer diameter, 230 mm deployed length in experimental configurations) achieves a mean centerline error of 3.03 mm. Proof-of-concept experiments conducted in anatomically realistic cardiac phantoms demonstrate successful deployment through the aortic valve into the left ventricle, supporting the feasibility of transaortic robotic access to the mitral valve as a prerequisite for future transcatheter mitral interventions.

In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems