A study on the bending mechanism of the flexible ureteroscope

Flexible ureteroscope is increasingly used for urologic treatment today. The key mechanism of the ureteroscope is the bending mechanism. It consists of a bending head and a control lever connected through a set of wire. The lighting and imaging optics as well as the surgical tools all go through the bending head. With the demand for improved performance and reduced size, more research on its design is still needed. In this paper, the modeling and simulation of an ureteroscope are presented, which pave the road for design optimization in the future.