Development of a micro‐robot for endoscopes based on wireless power transfer

摘要

This paper develops a new prototype of a wireless micro-robot system for endoscopes. The micro-robot we have fabricated and tested is able to propel itself in the intestine of pig. Its autonomous manner is earthworm-like and driven by linear actuators based on a DC motor. Unlike with conventional micro-robot endoscopes, that wireless module is used for communicating and power transfer. The experimental results show that the driving force of the linear actuator can reach up to 2.55 N and the stable supplying power is up to 480 mW DC power for the receiving coil in the proposed system, which all fulfill the need of the micro-robot system. The micro-robot can creep reliably in the small and large intestine of a pig. The video communication module embedded in the head of the micro-robot can capture the inner picture of the intestine and broadcast it to PC in real-time.