Active bending endoscope robot system for navigation through sinus area

Abstract

This work introduces a new endoscope robot system for general sinus surgery. The proposed endoscope can be bent in accordance with a user's intension at the time of inserting the endoscope into the sinus area, and it was designed to be bent up to 180 degrees and its diameter is about 4mm. The design of the proposed endoscope uses a spring backbone, which allows flexibility of the mechanism. A design method to determine design parameters for this device is proposed. The performance of the proposed system is verified by integration of the robot device and simulator.