Design and fabrication of a bio-material property measurement system

Recently, diseases in gastro-intestinal tract have drastically increased. As a result, endoscopic technologies are being developed to diagnose and treat these diseases. Biomaterial property is essential information to develop endoscopic devices especially capsule type endoscope. For the past decades, experiments to obtain material property of gastro-intestinal tract are performed on in-vitro state. Therefore, material properties of digestive organs are not in-vivo test result but in-vitro result. In this research, we design, develop, and fabricate a bio-material property measurement (BMPM) system. The measuring system consists of a probing device, tendon device and suction part. The probe measures the force transmitted from the biomaterial as the sensing module protrudes based on the tendon controls, while the suction device seizes the organ. By using the system, we can measure the local deformation force and the piercing force. The measured deformation and piercing force data can be used for the locomotive and clamping mechanism design of the capsule type endoscope. In order to evaluate the validity of the BMPM, we perform the operation in an esophagus, stomach and colon of a pig. In conclusion, we could measure each organ's material properties under in-vitro state without dissection of digestive organs. Some in-vivo test results are expected to design endoscopic devices using the proposed BMPM system.