Design of a novel snake-like robotic colonoscope

The colonoscope is an important surgical tool to diagnose various colon diseases. However, the conventional colonoscope usually causes the patient a great deal of discomfort and pain. In order to develop a colonoscope for less discomfort of the patient and less demanding operation techniques of the doctor, a novel snake-like robotic colonoscope is proposed in this paper. This robotic colonoscope adopts a kind of continuum structure which features continuously deformable backbone as opposed to the traditional robot featuring rigid links and identifiable rotational joints. The robotic colonoscope is 600 mm in total length and 12 mm in diameter that is less than the average diameter of human colon. The robotic colonoscope is divided to five sections, and each driven remotely by two DC servo motors through cables. Thus, each section of the robotic colonoscope has 2 DOF (Degrees of Freedom) and the robotic colonoscope has a total of 10 DOF. The mechanical structure, kinematics and DSP-based control system are presented. The workspace simulation and prototype experiments are carried out to verify the kinematics and show the motion performance.