Novel Integrated Helical Design of Single Optic Fiber for Shape Sensing of Flexible Robot

With the evolution of technology, it is now possible to build more flexible surgical instruments with multiple degrees of freedom that can be deployed in natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery, further reducing tissue damage, blood loss, and recovery time. However, the limits of flexible robots are mainly represented by the lack of accurate position feedback during the surgical procedure. The most critical problems of shape sensors are size and quantity limits, as well as sterilizability. This paper presents a novel helical configuration of single optic fiber with multiple fiber Bragg grating sensors to measure the shape of flexible robots. Detailed design of helix parameters, simulation and verification experiments were performed. We have shown the feasibility of helical configuration to reduce the effect of temperature, and detect the torsion and bending of the flexible shaft. The experimental results demonstrated the potential to provide a shape detection for flexible robot.