Experimental Validation of an Enhanced Bending Angle Endoscopic Design

Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) requires flexible and safe tools capable of navigating in complex and tight areas to prevent or reduce patient's trauma and help in fast recovery. Soft robotic endoscopes, which offer smooth continuum motion under low pressures, were developed since traditional rigid and tendon-driven endoscopes lack the compliance needed for such conditions. The main challenge in soft robots' endoscopes is to achieve higher bending angles at lower pressures to maintain patient's safety. This paper proposes a novel soft endoscope, operating pneumatically, achieving higher bending angles at lower pressures compared to previous advancements. The novel design, Finite Element Analysis, and physical prototype fabrication are presented. A real-time vision technique is implemented to capture the bending angle accurately. A comparison between simulation and physical prototype results is implemented to validate the design's performance. The results show that the proposed design achieves higher bending angles at lower pressures, compared to previous designs.