Design of a Multi-bending Flexible Manipulator for Gastrointestinal Surgery

Abstract

Unlike the existing rigid surgical robots, flexible endoscopic robotic platforms have been actively researched owing to the advantages of high lesion accessibility and scar-free. However, there still exists difficult-to-access areas such as cardia and fundus in the gastrointestinal tract due to the limited Degrees of Freedom (DoFs) of the manipulator. In this study, we propose a multi-bending endoscopic manipulator to improve accessibility to the gastric region in any position and orientation. We perform mechanism design, kinematics, and cable-control analysis of the proposed manipulator. Finally, we verify the multi-bending motion in the simulated flexible pathway. © 2022 ICROS.