Handheld Active Add-On Control Unit for a Cable-Driven Flexible Endoscope

The instruments currently used by surgeons for treatment of the twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) are rigid or semi-rigid. Their poor dexterity makes this surgical intervention risky and the surgeon's work very complex. This paper proposes the design, assembly and quantitative evaluation...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in robotics and AI 2019-09, Vol.6, p.87-87
Main Authors: Legrand, Julie, Javaux, Allan, Ourak, Mouloud, Wenmakers, Dirk, Vercauteren, Tom, Deprest, Jan, Ourselin, Sebastien, Denis, Kathleen, Vander Poorten, Emmanuel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
add-on system
flexible robots
mechanism design
medical robots
Robotics and AI
TTTS
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Summary:The instruments currently used by surgeons for treatment of the twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) are rigid or semi-rigid. Their poor dexterity makes this surgical intervention risky and the surgeon's work very complex. This paper proposes the design, assembly and quantitative evaluation of an add-on system intended to be placed on a commercialized cable-driven flexible endoscope. The add-on system is lightweight and easily exchangeable thanks to the McKibben muscle actuators embedded in its system. The combination of the flexible endoscope and the new add-on unit results in an easy controllable flexible instrument with great potential use in TTTS treatment, and especially for regions that are hard to reach with conventional instruments. The fetoscope has a precision of 7.4% over its entire bending range and allows to decrease the maximum planar force on the body wall of 6.15% compared to the original endoscope. The add-on control system also allows a more stable and precise actuation of the endoscope flexible tip.
ISSN:2296-9144
2296-9144
DOI:10.3389/frobt.2019.00087