Multiarticular manipulator and its multi degree of freedom motion by distributed thin piston-cylinder actuators

This paper presents multiarticular manipulator for endoscope. Most of endoscope and forceps employ wire-driven mechanism. We previously proposed connected piston-cylinder actuators to drive deformable body of endoscope. Connected actuators could accumulate forces of elemental actuators. Contrary, this paper presents multiarticular manipulator integrated with distributed actuators to drive individual multiarticular elements. The multiarticular manipulator employs thin piston-cylinder actuator to drive individual multiarticular element. Pneumatic actuator, especially piston-cylinder actuator is featured by its high force density and safety for medical application. We design and demonstrate thin and large force piston-cylinder actuator. Developed actuator is thin enough to be integrated into the surface of manipulator (13 mm × 8 mm × 1.8 mm). Particularly, the thin piston-cylinder actuator generates almost four times as large force (200 mN at 400 kPa) as previous our work due to good sealing by parylene deposition. Developed actuators integrated into multiarticular elements could drive multiarticular manipulation as designed.