19 March 2026 | News
Image Courtesy: Public Domain
Sensome, the pioneer of microsensing technology for instant intra-operative tissue analysis, announced successful Proof of Concept (POC) cases using its Clotild® Smart Guidewire System with commercial and next-generation robotic systems from Robocath, a global leader in robotic solutions dedicated to interventional cardiology, to access and characterize clot in cerebral blood vessels. The effort demonstrates the feasibility of using Sensome’s smart guidewire technology with any robotic system accessing the vasculature to provide valuable sensor-obtained biological intelligence that can enhance a procedure.
Physicians treating stroke must often take a time-consuming, trial-and-error approach to thrombectomy as available imaging is murky and provides little information about the occlusion they are treating. The Clotild clot-sensing guidewire integrates the world’s smallest electrical impedance sensor with predictive models and is designed to instantly identify clot composition and true clot position in situ to reduce guesswork and inform treatment approach during mechanical thrombectomy.
The proof-of-concept robotic procedures were performed using Sensome’s clot-sensing guidewire to navigate and sense tissue in the hands of Robocath’s R-ONE commercial robotic system and a next-generation robot under development in a silicone model of the brain with animal clot inserted to mimic a stroke. View the proof-of-concept case here.
“The prospect of using robotics and AI to improve safety and efficiency in minimally invasive neurovascular interventions, such as thrombectomy, is exciting to us as physicians as we look to optimize our outcomes. The technology also has the potential to expand access to thrombectomy to rural areas, where a local robot could perform thrombectomy driven by remote experts from high-volume centers,” said Raphaël Blanc, MD, Deputy Head of Interventional Neuroradiology at Adolphe de Rothschild Foundation Hospital, Paris, who performed the proof-of-concept cases. “Using the smart guidewire instead of a conventional guidewire provided me with seamless navigation and in situ clot information that I cannot get any other way. Combining robotics with better information through sensing may become the future of thrombectomy.”
“This experience shows us that our clot-sensing guidewire has the potential to become the guidewire of choice for any medical robotic system that steers a wire,” said Franz Bozsak, CEO and co-founder of Sensome. “By successfully combining our breakthrough sensor technology with robotics, we are taking an important step towards physical AI, where, over time, sensor‑derived data from clot and other tissue can feed our AI database to support easier and more precise device selection, positioning, and delivery.”
“We are excited to see that simply swapping to a smart wire with our robot can obtain procedural data with the potential to make robotic surgery even safer. A robot that can differentiate between clot and vessel wall and react accordingly has the potential to limit risk and optimize safety for any robotic thrombectomy,” said Philippe Bencteux, President and founder of Robocath. “Combining the intelligence from smart devices with our own robotic intelligence will ultimately enable us to provide a new level of precision and care for patients with acute ischemic stroke.”
