Robotic endoscope

The endoscope has become ubiquitous and indispensable, changing many surgical procedures from life-threatening to outpatient. Use of the endoscope is limited by the ability to safely navigate circuitous paths, provide a stable tip in situ, and generate force where and as needed. Our lab developed a prototype robotic endoscope which mitigates these limits and is able both to contort to follow a convolved path and to generate tip-force in any direction. This design can be mounted at the extracorporeal end of any control system, extending existing surgical robots' utility. The effectors' actuators (stepper motors in this prototype) are external to the effector and transmit force via cables (aka tendons), and, assuming nonferromagnetic robot-segment composition, the design is safe for use with MRI and X-ray. A hollow core allows for in situ tool exchange, and hollow wall channels allows for routing permanent tools to the effector tip (e.g., vacuum, saline, fiber optics).