Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), Daegu, Republic of Korea.
Development Team 3, Ajinextek, Daegu, South Korea.
Comput Assist Surg (Abingdon). 2024 Dec;29(1):2404695. doi: 10.1080/24699322.2024.2404695. Epub 2024 Sep 21.
A robotic system for manipulating a flexible endoscope in surgery can provide enhanced accuracy and usability compared to manual operation. However, previous studies require large-scale, complex hardware systems to implement the rotational and translational motions of the soft endoscope cable. The conventional control of the endoscope by actuating the endoscope handle also leads to undesired slack between the endoscope tip and the handle, which becomes more problematic with long endoscopes such as a colonoscope. This study proposes a compact quad-roller friction mechanism that enables rotational and translational motions triggered not from the endoscope handle but at the endoscope tip. Controlling two pairs of tilted rollers achieves both types of motion within a small space. The proposed system also introduces an unsynchronized motion strategy between the handle and tip parts to minimize the robot's motion near the patient by employing the slack positively as a control index. Experiments indicate that the proposed system achieves accurate rotational and translational motions, and the unsynchronized control method reduces the total translational motion by up to 88% compared to the previous method.
用于手术中操作柔性内窥镜的机器人系统与手动操作相比，可以提供更高的准确性和易用性。然而，以前的研究需要大规模、复杂的硬件系统来实现软内窥镜电缆的旋转和平移运动。传统的内窥镜控制方法是通过操作内窥镜手柄来实现的，这会导致内窥镜尖端和手柄之间产生不必要的松弛，对于像结肠镜这样的长内窥镜来说，这个问题更加严重。本研究提出了一种紧凑的四辊摩擦机构，它可以实现由内窥镜尖端而不是手柄触发的旋转和平移运动。控制两对倾斜的滚轮可以在小空间内实现这两种运动。所提出的系统还引入了手柄和尖端部分之间的非同步运动策略，通过将松弛积极用作控制指标，最大程度地减少机器人在靠近患者时的运动。实验表明，所提出的系统可以实现精确的旋转和平移运动，与以前的方法相比，非同步控制方法可以将总平移运动减少多达 88%。
