## 1 Introduction  
Vascular diseases, such as aneurysms and stenosis, adversely affect blood flow to vital organs and other body tissues. This condition has been categorized as atherosclerosis when it affects the coronary, carotid, or peripheral arteries [1]. As a systemic and inflammatory vascular process, atherosclerosis causes plaque aggregation within the arterial lumen. The presence of atherosclerotic lesions in the coronary arteries, referred to as coronary artery disease (CAD), interrupts the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle, thereby eliciting symptoms such as numbness, angina, and myocardial infarction [2]. As a result, CAD is a significant cause of global disease burden and accounts for over 80% of sudden cardiac deaths [3]. Conventionally, interventionalists require large incisions into the chest cavity for procedures such as graft bypass around clogged arteries to reroute blood flow to the heart. However, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has been widely adopted for the diagnosis and treatment of CAD as it offers patients reduced perioperative morbidities and faster recovery times [4; 5; 6; 7]. In PCI procedures, intravascular catheterization is a vital step in which patients' vessels are cannulated with thin and flexible endovascular tools, viz. guidewire, catheter, and rapid exchange devices. This routine procedure involves tool navigation from an entry port, typically on the radial, femoral, or brachial vessels, to noticeable lesions in the coronary arteries. Intravascular catheterization is performed with trained interventionalists applying fine motor skills [7; 8]. This includes axial operations such as translational (push/pull) and rotational movements applied proximally, while the movement transmits distally to navigate endovascular tools within the patient's vasculature. However, precise manipulation of endovascular tools in a dynamic cardiac environment such as a beating heart and fragile vessels persists as a challenge in _cath labs_. Hence, interventionalists undergo extensive training and evaluation sessions for safe tool manipulation during PCI. Unfortunately, this limits the availability of operators with certified proficiency for manual catheterization relative to the recent high global prevalence rate of vascular diseases such as CAD [8; 9; 10; 11]. Robotic catheter systems (RCSs) have been introduced into _cath labs_ to reduce PCI operational risks such as radiation exposure hazards and orthopedic injuries to interventionalists. Robotic-assisted PCI (R-PCI) is performed with the RCS having a unique master and slave platform to ensure the surgeons' safety while offering remote tool manipulation [12]. Globally, CorPath(r) 200 and CorPath(r) GRX (Siemens Healthcare, Walpole, MA, USA) are FDA-approved commercial products developed to facilitate precise navigation of flexible endovascular tools with enhanced dexterity and a reduced learning curve for R-PCIs [13; 14]. In addition, CorPath(r) GRX offers higher functionalities such as guided control and improved device exchanges. However, to achieve smooth motion during procedures, the CorPath systems translate endovascular tools with a displacement step of 1 mm or a maximum speed of 12 mm/s. Hence, its motion accuracy for higher displacement step values is unsubstantiated [15]. Despite the evidence supporting the safety and feasibility of RCSs for R-PCIs, they are currently available in only a few hospitals globally. Furthermore, it is projected that RCSs with higher autonomy can aid better patient outcomes, and thus it is deemed an area requiring further research for technological improvements [16; 17]. RCS prototypes with master-slave position-tracking capabilities for safe and responsive tool navigation at different displacement step values were developed in several studies. For instance, [PERSON] et al. [18] proposed a catheter drive system with sleeve-based grippers using pneumatic actuation. The clamping strategy ensures an equivalent force distribution along the catheter while providing continuous motion.