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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Published inFrontiers in robotics and AI Vol. 6; p. 87
Main Authors Legrand, Julie, Javaux, Allan, Ourak, Mouloud, Wenmakers, Dirk, Vercauteren, Tom, Deprest, Jan, Ourselin, Sebastien, Denis, Kathleen, Vander Poorten, Emmanuel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 20.09.2019
Subjects
add-on system
flexible robots
mechanism design
medical robots
Robotics and AI
TTTS
flexible robots
TTTS
medical robots
mechanism design
add-on system
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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.
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Reviewed by: Femke Slaghekke, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands; Lin Cao, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
This article was submitted to Biomedical Robotics, a section of the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI
Edited by: Jungwon Yoon, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea
ISSN:2296-9144
2296-9144
DOI:10.3389/frobt.2019.00087