Inchworm-like micro robot for human intestine

Abstract

A robotic endoscopy to human intestine can relieve the discomfort from the traditional colonoscope. It is difficult to make the micro robot be featured with the non-invasive intervention and the active efficient locomotion in the special intestinal environment. Coordinating the safety, the efficiency, and the miniaturization is very important to the real application in clinic. Based on the safety and efficiency analysis, this research proposed a robotic endoscope inspired by the principle of inchworm locomotion. This robot is composed of three cells linked by passive universal joints in serial. Two cells with radial extension mechanism are used to support the intestine wall like an umbrella. One cell translates along the axial direction. The two radial expansion cells are installed at the head and the tail, while the axial translation cell is between them. The robot adopts the inchworm gait to move forward or backward. The two mechanisms are designed, manufactured and optimized to provide the safe and efficient actuators in intestine. The prototype is developed using these two kinds of the mechanisms and the tests of velocity and the locomotion force in silicon gel tube, PVC tube and the fresh pig colon are performed to verify the robot's locomotion ability and safety. The experiments show that the robot can realize the expected aims excellently.