Modeling and Control of a Pneumatic Soft Robotic Catheter Using Neural Koopman Operators

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Yue, Yiyao, Barnes, Noah, Di, Lingyun, Young, Olivia, Sochol, Ryan D., Brown, Jeremy D., Krieger, Axel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Yue, Yiyao
Barnes, Noah
Di, Lingyun
Young, Olivia
Sochol, Ryan D.
Brown, Jeremy D.
Krieger, Axel
author_facet Yue, Yiyao
Barnes, Noah
Di, Lingyun
Young, Olivia
Sochol, Ryan D.
Brown, Jeremy D.
Krieger, Axel
contents Catheter-based interventions are widely used for the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac diseases. Recently, robotic catheters have attracted attention for their ability to improve precision and stability over conventional manual approaches. However, accurate modeling and control of soft robotic catheters remain challenging due to their complex, nonlinear behavior. The Koopman operator enables lifting the original system data into a linear "lifted space", offering a data-driven framework for predictive control; however, manually chosen basis functions in the lifted space often oversimplify system behaviors and degrade control performance. To address this, we propose a neural network-enhanced Koopman operator framework that jointly learns the lifted space representation and Koopman operator in an end-to-end manner. Moreover, motivated by the need to minimize radiation exposure during X-ray fluoroscopy in cardiac ablation, we investigate open-loop control strategies using neural Koopman operators to reliably reach target poses without continuous imaging feedback. The proposed method is validated in two experimental scenarios: interactive position control and a simulated cardiac ablation task using an atrium-like cavity. Our approach achieves average errors of 2.1 +- 0.4 mm in position and 4.9 +- 0.6 degrees in orientation, outperforming not only model-based baselines but also other Koopman variants in targeting accuracy and efficiency. These results highlight the potential of the proposed framework for advancing soft robotic catheter systems and improving catheter-based interventions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_04118
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Modeling and Control of a Pneumatic Soft Robotic Catheter Using Neural Koopman Operators
Yue, Yiyao
Barnes, Noah
Di, Lingyun
Young, Olivia
Sochol, Ryan D.
Brown, Jeremy D.
Krieger, Axel
Robotics
Catheter-based interventions are widely used for the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac diseases. Recently, robotic catheters have attracted attention for their ability to improve precision and stability over conventional manual approaches. However, accurate modeling and control of soft robotic catheters remain challenging due to their complex, nonlinear behavior. The Koopman operator enables lifting the original system data into a linear "lifted space", offering a data-driven framework for predictive control; however, manually chosen basis functions in the lifted space often oversimplify system behaviors and degrade control performance. To address this, we propose a neural network-enhanced Koopman operator framework that jointly learns the lifted space representation and Koopman operator in an end-to-end manner. Moreover, motivated by the need to minimize radiation exposure during X-ray fluoroscopy in cardiac ablation, we investigate open-loop control strategies using neural Koopman operators to reliably reach target poses without continuous imaging feedback. The proposed method is validated in two experimental scenarios: interactive position control and a simulated cardiac ablation task using an atrium-like cavity. Our approach achieves average errors of 2.1 +- 0.4 mm in position and 4.9 +- 0.6 degrees in orientation, outperforming not only model-based baselines but also other Koopman variants in targeting accuracy and efficiency. These results highlight the potential of the proposed framework for advancing soft robotic catheter systems and improving catheter-based interventions.
title Modeling and Control of a Pneumatic Soft Robotic Catheter Using Neural Koopman Operators
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.04118