Towards a Snake-Like Flexible Robot for Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection

The advance of flexible robots enables a more efficient and safer way to perform endoscopic submucosal dissection surgery. The robot should be flexible enough for easy insertion and able to maintain a rigid shape to transmit the forces applied on instrumentation during the operation. This article presents a snake-like flexible endoscope design which consists of an active snake robot and a passive flexible body. The active section is composed of metal printed spring-like joints actuated by tendons arranged in a novel fashion. To analyse the performance and clinical feasibility of the proposed flexible robot, Finite Element Analysis, workspace analysis, path following accuracy and force test have been performed. The results have shown that the robot can reach a minimum retro-flex bending radius of 23 mm and the distance errors of each joint when advancing along a simulated colon path are analysed. Validation of the proposed robot demonstrates its potential for ESD surgeries.