Ergonomic master controller for flexible endoscopic gastrointestinal robot manipulator

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. The proposed robotic system is capable of performing therapeutic interventions in flexible endoscopy, which are currently not possible with conventional endoscopes. It consists of a master console and a slave. The latter is a cable driven flexible robotic manipulator that can be inserted into tool channel of existing endoscopes or attached in tandem to the endoscope. In this paper, we discuss the overall robotic system and the design requirements and the instrumentation of the anthropomorphic master device that can be used to effectively control the slave manipulator.