Robotic system for no‐scar gastrointestinal surgery

Abstract

Abstract-In line with minimally invasive surgery (MIS), flexible endoscopy is used to inspect and treat disorders of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract without the need for creating an artificial opening on the patient's body. Simple surgical procedures (like polypectomy and biopsy) can be performed by introducing a flexible tool via a working channel to reach the site of interest at the distal end. More technically demanding surgical procedures like hemostasis for arterial bleeding, and suturing to mend a perforation cannot be effectively achieved with conventional flexible endoscopy. The proposed masterslave robotic system enables the endoscopist to perform technically demanding therapeutic procedures which are currently performed only by surgeons in an opened surgery setting. The robotic system consists of a master console and a slave. The latter is a cable driven flexible robotic manipulator that can be inserted into the tool channel of existing endoscopes or attached in tandem to the endosopes. Together with the real time endoscopic view, the endoscopist would be capable of performing more intricate and difficult surgical procedures using natural orifices to access the gastrointestinal tract thus eliminating any scars on the patient.

The Next-Generation Surgical Robots

“…However, in practice, manual ESD required extensive training and experience, and remained technically challenging to execute for both surgeons and endoscopists [85][86][87]. Overcoming the technical hurdle, the irst endoscopic surgical robot was introduced by enabling multiple degrees-of-freedom (DOF) triangulated instrumentation on a standard endoscope platform [88]. The robot adopted the master-slave design similar to laparoscopic surgical robots [89,90], and was enabled with haptic feedback [91,92].…”

Design of a multitasking robotic platform with flexible arms and articulated head for Minimally Invasive Surgery

“…These include the continuum robotic arms by Columbia University [16], a bimanual masterslave manipulator that can be attached to a standard endoscope [17], the ARAKNES platform by an EU consortium [18] and the i-Snake® by Imperial College London [19]. Other platforms include Viacath [20], which consists of a flexible overtube that runs alongside a standard gastroscope or colonoscope with two distal articulated robotic instruments that are tendon driven based on serially linked joints.…”

Robotic flexible endoscope

“…An exoskeleton interface controls all degrees of freedom of the system, as depicted in Figure 1.13. The slave is a cable driven end effector that can be mounted on existing endoscopes [Phee et al, 2008]. Figure 1.13 Robot Nanyang University [Phee et al, 2008] The Master and Slave Transluminal Endoscopic Robot (M.A.S.T.E.R.)…”

“…The slave is a cable driven end effector that can be mounted on existing endoscopes [Phee et al, 2008]. Figure 1.13 Robot Nanyang University [Phee et al, 2008] The Master and Slave Transluminal Endoscopic Robot (M.A.S.T.E.R.) presented in [Phee et al, 2009] of the Nanyang University uses the same (kind of) slave manipulator as the system discussed in [Phee et al, 2008].…”

“…Figure 1.13 Robot Nanyang University [Phee et al, 2008] The Master and Slave Transluminal Endoscopic Robot (M.A.S.T.E.R.) presented in [Phee et al, 2009] of the Nanyang University uses the same (kind of) slave manipulator as the system discussed in [Phee et al, 2008]. The multi-degrees of freedom input devices link the movement of the user's hand to instrument movements.…”