A Novel Flexible Robotic Endoscope with Constrained Tendon-Driven Continuum Mechanism

This letter presents a novel flexible robotic endoscope with a constrained tendon-driven continuum mechanism (CTCM) which is targeted for bariatric surgery. The robotic endoscope is composed of a UR5 robot and a CTCM-based flexible endoscope. By introducing a constraint tube, both the angulation and the length of the flexible segment can be controlled, ensuring improved flexibility and dexterity. The kinematic modeling of the flexible robotic endoscope is conducted with the remote center of motion (RCM) constraints and physical limits of the robotic system considered. To automate the endoscope robot, image-based visual servoing technique is employed. The kinematics modeling results in a quadratic programming (QP) based control framework with the physical limits and RCM constraints of the robotic endoscope involved. Experimental validation is performed to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the CTCM-based flexible endoscope for bariatric surgery as compared with conventional rigid and flexible endoscopes.