Robotic catheter system

1. A robotic system for manipulating a catheter having a plurality of steering wires longitudinally situated within a length of the catheter, each steering wire connected to a catheter pull ring at or near the distal end of the catheter and connected to a control member at or near the proximal end of the catheter, the robotic system comprising:

a user interface configured to display a view of an anatomical model and to receive one or more user inputs;

a catheter manipulator assembly comprising at least one linearly movable actuator configured to linearly actuate one or more control members of a catheter; and

a robotic controller configured to provide a view of the anatomical model to the user interface; accept one or more user inputs from the user interface in a first coordinate system; register the one or more user inputs to a second coordinate system associated with the anatomical model; compute one or more actuator commands from the one or more registered inputs; and cause the at least one linearly movable actuator of the catheter manipulator assembly to linearly actuate the one or more control members of the catheter in accordance with the computed actuator commands,

wherein the robotic controller is configured to accept the one or more user inputs corresponding to an interior point of the anatomical model and to linearly actuate the one or more control members in real-time with the one or more user inputs, and

wherein the one or more user inputs from the user interface includes the identification of at least one waypoint corresponding to an interior point of the anatomical model.

2. The robotic system of claim 1 , further comprising a positioning system configured to provide an indication of a position of the catheter to the controller.

3. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the user interface includes an input device and a display device.

4. The robotic system of claim 3 , wherein the input device includes a spatially detected glove or stylus.

5. The robotic system of claim 4 , wherein the spatially detected glove or stylus is locatable in three dimensional space using a magnetic field.

6. The robotic system of claim 4 , wherein the spatially detected glove or stylus is locatable in three dimensional space using an electrostatic field or optical positioning system.

7. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the user interface is a multi-touch display interface configured to receive touch-based input from a user.

8. The robotic system of claim 7 , wherein the multi-touch interface includes displayed on-screen menu buttons configured to activate different functions within the displayed image.

9. The robotic system of claim 8 , wherein the functions comprise pan, rotate, zoom, direct movement of the catheter, place lesion markers, place virtual sensors, place automated movement targets, or draw movement lines.

10. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the user interface includes an input device configured to resemble a traditional catheter handle.

11. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the user interface is configured to receive one or more inputs made with respect to a displayed third-person view of a catheter and anatomic model.

12. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to project the waypoint to the surface of a displayed anatomical model.

13. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to compute a movement vector by comparing the location of a representation of the catheter within the anatomical model to the location of the waypoint.

14. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the linear actuation of the one or more control members of the catheter causes a portion of the catheter to deflect away from a longitudinal axis of the catheter.

15. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more control members comprises a slider situated within a robotic catheter device cartridge, and wherein causing the catheter manipulator assembly to linearly actuate the one or more control members of the catheter includes linearly translating one or more fingers of the catheter manipulator assembly in a manner to linearly move the slider block.

16. A method for robotically controlling a catheter within a cardiac anatomy comprising

providing a view of an anatomical model to a user interface;

accepting one or more user inputs from the user interface in a first coordinate system;

registering the one or more user inputs to a second coordinate system associated with the anatomical model;

computing one or more actuator commands from the one or more registered inputs; and

causing at least one linearly movable actuator of a catheter manipulator assembly to linearly actuate one or more control members of a catheter in accordance with the computed actuator commands and in real-time with the one or more user inputs,

wherein accepting the one or more user inputs includes accepting user inputs corresponding to an interior point of the anatomical model,

wherein the one or more user inputs from the user interface includes the identification of at least one waypoint corresponding to an interior point of the anatomical model, and

wherein causing the at least one linearly movable actuator of a catheter manipulator assembly to linearly actuate includes determining a maximum allowable speed of the catheter as a function of the orthogonal distance between the catheter and a nearest cardiac tissue of the anatomical model.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:

registering the one or more user inputs to the second coordinate system associated with the anatomical model through a transformation matrix; and

wherein computing the one or more actuator commands from the one or more registered inputs includes computing an inverse Jacobian Matrix.

18. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the anatomical model is two-dimensional.

19. The robotic system of claim 1 wherein the robotic controller is configured to accept a user input of a scaling factor to determine the maximum allowable speed of the catheter as a function of the orthogonal distance between the catheter and a nearest cardiac tissue of the anatomical model.

20. A robotic system for manipulating a catheter having a plurality of steering wires longitudinally situated within a length of the catheter, each steering wire connected to a catheter pull ring at or near the distal end of the catheter and connected to a control member at or near the proximal end of the catheter, the robotic system comprising:

a user interface configured to display a view of an anatomical model and to receive one or more user inputs;

a catheter manipulator assembly comprising at least one movable actuator configured to actuate one or more control members of a catheter; and

a robotic controller configured to provide a view of the anatomical model to the user interface; accept one or more user inputs from the user interface in a first coordinate system; register the one or more user inputs to a second coordinate system associated with the anatomical model; compute one or more actuator commands from the one or more registered inputs; and cause the at least one movable actuator of the catheter manipulator assembly to actuate the one or more control members of the catheter in accordance with the computed actuator commands,

wherein the robotic controller is configured to accept the one or more user inputs corresponding to an interior point of the anatomical model and to actuate the one or more control members in real-time with the one or more user inputs, and

wherein the one or more user inputs from the user interface includes the identification of at least one waypoint corresponding to an interior point of the anatomical model.