Abstract
In the ever advancing field of minimally invasive surgery, flexible instruments with local degrees of freedom are needed to navigate through the intricate topologies of the human body. Although cable or concentric tube driven solutions have proven their merits in this field, they are inadequate for realizing small bending radii and suffer from friction, which is detrimental when automation is envisioned. Soft robotic actuators with locally actuated degrees of freedom are foreseen to fill in this void, where elastic inflatable actuators are very promising due to their S3-principle, being Small, Soft and Safe. This paper reports on the characterization of a chip-on-tip endoscope, consisting out of a soft robotic pneumatic bending microactuator equipped with a 1.1 × 1.1 mm2 CMOS camera. As such, the total diameter of the endoscope measures 1.66 mm. To show the feasibility of using this system in a surgical environment, a preliminary test on an eye mock-up is conducted.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
G. Chen, M.T. Pham, T. Redarce, Sensor-based guidance control of a continuum robot for a semi-autonomous colonoscopy. Robot. Auton. Syst. 57(6–7), 712–722 (2009)
Cianchetti, M., Ranzani, T., Gerboni, G., De Falco, I., Laschi, C., & Menciassi, A. STIFF-FLOP Surgical Manipulator: Mechanical Design and Experimental Characterization of the Single Module. Paper presented at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Tokyo, JAPAN (2013)
A. De Greef, P. Lambert, A. Delchambre, Towards flexible medical instruments: Review of flexible fluidic actuators. Precision Engineering-Journal of the International Societies for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology 33(4), 311–321 (2009)
M. De Volder, D. Reynaerts, Pneumatic and hydraulic microactuators: A review. J. Micromech. Microeng. 20(4), 043001 (2010)
Devreker, A., Vander Poorten, E., Gijbels, A., Tran, P. T., De Pratere, H., Herijgers, P., et al. (2014). Towards fluidic actuation for catheter-based interventions. Paper presented at the proceedings actuator 2014
Y. Elsayed, A. Vincensi, C. Lekakou, T. Geng, C.M. Saaj, T. Ranzani, et al., Finite element analysis and design optimization of a pneumatically actuating silicone module for robotic surgery applications. Soft Robotics 1(4), 255–262 (2014)
L. A. Fleury, Pneumatic jack. US1295471 (1919)
K.H. Fuchs, Minimally invasive surgery. Endoscopy 34(02), 154–159 (2002)
N. Fujiwara, S. Sawano, S. Konishi, in 2009 IEEE 22nd International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems. MEMS 2009. Linear expansion and contraction of paired pneumatic balloon bending actuators toward telescopic motion (2009), pp. 435–438
D. Glozman, N. Hassidov, M. Senesh, M. Shoham, A self-propelled inflatable earthworm-like endoscope actuated by single supply line. IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 57(6), 1264–1272 (2010)
B. Gorissen, T. Chishiro, S. Shimomura, D. Reynaerts, M. De Volder, S. Konishi, Flexible pneumatic twisting actuators and their application to tilting micromirrors. Sensors and Actuators a-Physical 216, 426–431 (2014)
B. Gorissen, M. De Volder, A. De Greef, D. Reynaerts, Theoretical and experimental analysis of pneumatic balloon microactuators. Sensors and Actuators a-Physical 168(1), 58–65 (2011a)
B. Gorissen, R. Donose, D. Reynaerts, M. De Volder, Flexible pneumatic micro-actuators: Analysis and production. Procedia Engineering 25, 681–684 (2011b)
B. Gorissen, C. Van Hoof, D. Reynaerts, M. De Volder, SU8 etch mask for patterning PDMS and its application to flexible fluidic microactuators. Microsystems & nanoengineering 2 (2016)
Y. Haga, Y. Muyari, T. Mineta, T. Matsunaga, H. Akahori, M. Esashi, et al., in Paper Presented at the 3rd IEEE/EMBS Special Topic Conference on Microtechnology in Medicine and Biology. Small diameter hydraulic active bending catheter using laser processed super elastic alloy and silicone rubber tube (HI, Oahu, 2005)
L. Hines, K. Petersen, G.Z. Lum, M. Sitti, Soft actuators for small-scale robotics. Adv. Mater. 29(13) (2017)
J. Hu, C.-Y. Chang, N. Tardella, J. Pratt, J. English, Effectiveness of haptic feedback in open surgery simulation and training systems. Stud. Health Technol. Inform 119, 213–218 (2006)
D.-H. Kim, N. Lu, R. Ghaffari, Y.-S. Kim, S.P. Lee, L. Xu, et al., Materials for multifunctional balloon catheters with capabilities in cardiac electrophysiological mapping and ablation therapy. Nat. Mater. 10(4), 316–323 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2971
S. Konishi, Small, soft, safe micromachine for minimally invasive surgery. International Meeting for Future of Electron Devices (IMFEDK) 2011, 20–21 (2011)
S. Konishi, T. Kobayashi, H. Maeda, S. Asajima, M. Makikawa, Cuff actuator for adaptive holding condition around nerves. Sensors and Actuators B-Chemical 83(1–3), 60–66 (2002)
Konishi, S., Nokata, M., Jeong, O. C., Sakakibara, T., Kusuda, S., Kuwayama, M., et al. Merging micro and macro robotics toward micro manipulation for biomedical operation. Paper presented at the the 36th international symposium on robotics (2005)
R.V. Martinez, C.R. Fish, X. Chen, G.M. Whitesides, Elastomeric origami: Programmable paper-elastomer composites as pneumatic actuators. Adv. Funct. Mater. 22(7), 1376–1384 (2012)
R.V. Martinez, A.C. Glavan, C. Keplinger, A.I. Oyetibo, G.M. Whitesides, Soft actuators and robots that are resistant to mechanical damage. Adv. Funct. Mater. 24(20), 3003–3010 (2014)
A.J.M. Moers, M.F.L. De Volder, D. Reynaerts, Integrated high pressure microhydraulic actuation and control for surgical instruments. Biomed. Microdevices 14(4), 699–708 (2012)
B. Mosadegh, P. Polygerinos, C. Keplinger, S. Wennstedt, R.F. Shepherd, U. Gupta, et al., Pneumatic networks for soft robotics that actuate rapidly. Adv. Funct. Mater. 24(15), 2163–2170 (2014)
H. Okayasu, J. Okamoto, M.G. Fujie, Ieee, in Paper Presented at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). Development of a hydraulically-driven flexible manipulator including passive safety method (SPAIN, Barcelona, 2005)
Ratner, B. D., Hoffman, A. S., Schoen, F. J., & Lemons, J. E. Biomaterials Science: An Introduction to Materials in Medicine: Elsevier Science (2004)
D. Rus, M.T. Tolley, Design, fabrication and control of soft robots. Nature 521(7553), 467–475 (2015)
P. Schiettecatte, R. Plaghki, Gripping apparatus and method of manufacturing agripping apparatus. WO2014131810A1 (2014)
K. Suzumori, Flexible Microactuator. Trans. of Japan Society of Mechanical engineers 55(518), 2547–2552 (1989)
Takemura, K., Yokota, S., & Edamura, K. A Micro Artificial Muscle Actuator using Electro-conjugate Fluid. Paper presented at the robotics and automation, 2005. ICRA 2005. Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE international conference on (2005)
Y.H. Tan, G.M. Preminger, Advances in video and imaging in ureteroscopy. Urol. Clin. N. Am. 31(1), 33–42 (2004)
S. Terryn, J. Brancart, D. Lefeber, G. Van Assche, B. Vanderborght, Self-healing soft pneumatic robots. Science Robotics 2(9) (2017)
R.J. Webster, B.A. Jones, Design and kinematic modeling of constant curvature continuum robots: A review. Int. J. Robot. Res. 29(13), 1661–1683 (2010)
M. Wehner, R.L. Truby, D.J. Fitzgerald, B. Mosadegh, G.M. Whitesides, J.A. Lewis, et al., An integrated design and fabrication strategy for entirely soft, autonomous robots. Nature 536(7617), 451–455 (2016)
Acknowledgements
This research is supported by the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders (FWO), and the European Research Council (ERC starting grant HIENA).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(AVI 13007 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gorissen, B., De Volder, M. & Reynaerts, D. Chip-on-tip endoscope incorporating a soft robotic pneumatic bending microactuator. Biomed Microdevices 20, 73 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-018-0317-1
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-018-0317-1