Design Evaluation of a Stabilized, Walking Endoscope Tip

A rigid attachment of a surgical tool to the target tissue can improve the tool manipulation accuracy in minimally invasive robotic surgery. The main challenges in developing an attachment concept for stabilizing a surgical tool are not to restrict the task-relevant workspace of the device and not to increase the invasiveness of the procedure by either the attachment concept itself or additional incisions needed to reposition the surgical tool. We developed an upscaled prototype of a parallel mechanism for minimally invasive surgery integrated into an endoscope tip that can attach to the target tissue with its two legs. An actuated leg design that can fold, unfold, and attach to the target surface was designed, manufactured, and evaluated. We demonstrate that by the actuated leg design, the parallel robot can reposition its two legs independently and can “walk” along the target surface.