Toward Safe Autonomous Robotic Endovascular Interventions using World Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Robertshaw, Harry, Fischer, Nikola, Wu, Han-Ru, Perez, Andrea Walker, Deng, Weiyuan, Jackson, Benjamin, Bergeles, Christos, Granados, Alejandro, Booth, Thomas C
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Robertshaw, Harry
Fischer, Nikola
Wu, Han-Ru
Perez, Andrea Walker
Deng, Weiyuan
Jackson, Benjamin
Bergeles, Christos
Granados, Alejandro
Booth, Thomas C
author_facet Robertshaw, Harry
Fischer, Nikola
Wu, Han-Ru
Perez, Andrea Walker
Deng, Weiyuan
Jackson, Benjamin
Bergeles, Christos
Granados, Alejandro
Booth, Thomas C
contents Autonomous mechanical thrombectomy (MT) presents substantial challenges due to highly variable vascular geometries and the requirements for accurate, real-time control. While reinforcement learning (RL) has emerged as a promising paradigm for the automation of endovascular navigation, existing approaches often show limited robustness when faced with diverse patient anatomies or extended navigation horizons. In this work, we investigate a world-model-based framework for autonomous endovascular navigation built on TD-MPC2, a model-based RL method that integrates planning and learned dynamics. We evaluate a TD-MPC2 agent trained on multiple navigation tasks across hold out patient-specific vasculatures and benchmark its performance against the state-of-the-art Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) algorithm agent. Both approaches are further validated in vitro using patient-specific vascular phantoms under fluoroscopic guidance. In simulation, TD-MPC2 demonstrates a significantly higher mean success rate than SAC (58% vs. 36%, p < 0.001), and mean tip contact forces of 0.15 N, well below the proposed 1.5 N vessel rupture threshold. Mean success rates for TD-MPC2 (68%) were comparable to SAC (60%) in vitro, but TD-MPC2 achieved superior path ratios (p = 0.017) at the cost of longer procedure times (p < 0.001). Together, these results provide the first demonstration of autonomous MT navigation validated across both hold out in silico data and fluoroscopy-guided in vitro experiments, highlighting the promise of world models for safe and generalizable AI-assisted endovascular interventions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_20151
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Toward Safe Autonomous Robotic Endovascular Interventions using World Models
Robertshaw, Harry
Fischer, Nikola
Wu, Han-Ru
Perez, Andrea Walker
Deng, Weiyuan
Jackson, Benjamin
Bergeles, Christos
Granados, Alejandro
Booth, Thomas C
Robotics
Machine Learning
Autonomous mechanical thrombectomy (MT) presents substantial challenges due to highly variable vascular geometries and the requirements for accurate, real-time control. While reinforcement learning (RL) has emerged as a promising paradigm for the automation of endovascular navigation, existing approaches often show limited robustness when faced with diverse patient anatomies or extended navigation horizons. In this work, we investigate a world-model-based framework for autonomous endovascular navigation built on TD-MPC2, a model-based RL method that integrates planning and learned dynamics. We evaluate a TD-MPC2 agent trained on multiple navigation tasks across hold out patient-specific vasculatures and benchmark its performance against the state-of-the-art Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) algorithm agent. Both approaches are further validated in vitro using patient-specific vascular phantoms under fluoroscopic guidance. In simulation, TD-MPC2 demonstrates a significantly higher mean success rate than SAC (58% vs. 36%, p < 0.001), and mean tip contact forces of 0.15 N, well below the proposed 1.5 N vessel rupture threshold. Mean success rates for TD-MPC2 (68%) were comparable to SAC (60%) in vitro, but TD-MPC2 achieved superior path ratios (p = 0.017) at the cost of longer procedure times (p < 0.001). Together, these results provide the first demonstration of autonomous MT navigation validated across both hold out in silico data and fluoroscopy-guided in vitro experiments, highlighting the promise of world models for safe and generalizable AI-assisted endovascular interventions.
title Toward Safe Autonomous Robotic Endovascular Interventions using World Models
topic Robotics
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.20151