Design and evaluation of a novel flexible robot for transluminal and endoluminal surgery

Precise and repetitive positional control of surgical robots is important to reduce time and risks of surgical procedures. These factors become particularly important when deploying the surgical system through a flexible path to areas with a tight workspace such as the stomach or oesophagus where high dexterity, flexibility, accuracy and stability are required. This paper presents a flexible access robot combining articulated joints and continuum flexible section for both transluminal and endoluminal surgeries. Kinematic model and control strategy for the flexible robot are described in the paper. The experiment simulating a transoral gastric procedure demonstrates great flexibility and dexterity of the device. The results show that good accuracy and repetitive control of the device are achieved, which demonstrate the potential application of the device for transluminal or endoluminal surgery.