While performing an endoscopy, which means taking a look inside the human body, the currently used flexible endoscope is difficult to handle. Because the often used endoscope is so flexible, it has the potential to reach areas of the body that are otherwise impossible to reach. This does, however, pose the drawback of needing a lot of experience to handle this equipment well.
This project proposes to use robotics to manipulate the endoscope. In this scenario, the physician uses a remote control which is connected to the drive system of the robotic endoscope. Performing a colonoscopy (inspection of the large intestine) is normally one of the most demanding diagnostic procedures, and on average a doctor needs around 100-200 procedures to reach a safe and time efficient performance.
The development of a user-friendly, single person robotic-steered endoscope is supported by physicians, as long as it will not be in the form of a completely new product; rather, it should keep the basic elements of the normal endoscope. Rigorous training and experiments have shown that using this project’s robot steering increases efficiency and satisfaction.
University of Twente
