McCandless Max, Gerald Arincheyan, Carroll Ashlyn, Aihara Hiroyuki, Russo Sheila
Mechanical Engineering Department, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215 USA.
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115 USA.
IEEE Robot Autom Lett. 2021 Jul;6(3):5292-5299. doi: 10.1109/lra.2021.3073651. Epub 2021 Apr 15.
Colonoscopy is the gold standard for colorectal cancer diagnosis; however, limited instrument dexterity and no sensor feedback can hamper procedure safety and acceptance. We propose a soft robotic sleeve to provide sensor feedback and additional actuation capabilities to improve safety during navigation in colonoscopy. The robot can be mounted around current endoscopic instrumentation as a disposable "add-on", avoiding the need for dedicated or customized instruments and without disrupting current surgical workflow. We focus on design, finite element analysis, fabrication, and experimental characterization and validation of the soft robotic sleeve. The device integrates soft optical sensors to monitor contact interaction forces between the colon and the colonoscope and soft robotic actuators that can be automatically deployed if excessive force is detected, to guarantee pressure redistribution on a larger contact area of the colon. The system can be operated by a surgeon via a graphic user interface that displays contact force values and enables independent or coordinated pressurization of the soft actuators upon demand, in case deemed necessary to aid navigation or distend colon tissue.
结肠镜检查是结直肠癌诊断的金标准；然而，器械灵活性有限且缺乏传感器反馈会妨碍手术安全性和接受度。我们提出一种软性机器人套管，以提供传感器反馈和额外的驱动能力，从而提高结肠镜检查导航过程中的安全性。该机器人可以作为一次性“附加装置”安装在现有的内镜器械周围，无需专用或定制器械，也不会扰乱当前的手术流程。我们专注于软性机器人套管的设计、有限元分析、制造以及实验表征和验证。该装置集成了软性光学传感器，以监测结肠与结肠镜之间的接触相互作用力，还集成了软性机器人致动器，一旦检测到过大的力，致动器就能自动展开，以确保在结肠更大的接触面积上实现压力重新分布。该系统可由外科医生通过图形用户界面操作，该界面会显示接触力值，并能在必要时根据需要对软性致动器进行独立或协同加压，以辅助导航或扩张结肠组织。
