“…Commercial devices used in laparoscopic procedures, such as Intuitive Surgical's daVinci system, have dexterous wrists and a range of end effectors that can pass through small ports (~1 cm) and work inside the body with reduced trauma to patients (www.intuitivesurgical.com). Additionally, actuation of tendril-like, high aspect ratio surgical tools has been investigated with various robotic endoscopes (Maeda et al, 1996), (Ikuta, Tsukamoto and Hirose, 1988), (Slatkin, Burdick and Grundfest, 1995). Here, the ability to control not only the tool tip, but also the bending of the device's length is achieved.…”