The MemoFlex II, a non-robotic approach to follow-the-leader motion of a snake-like instrument for surgery using four predetermined physical tracks

Henselmans, Paul W. J.; Culmone, Costanza; Jager, David J.; Starkenburg, Remi I. B. van; Breedveld, Paul

doi:10.1016/j.medengphy.2020.10.013

Cited by 9 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Miniaturization is instead possible with actuators placed outside the main body of the instrument (extrinsic), leading to fewer spatial limitations ( 15 , 16 ), less issues with sterilization ( 17 ), and possible low-cost disposable use ( 18 , 19 ). Surgical robots can also be categorized into two main groups considering the shape propagation method: shape-deploying and shape-shifting ( 20 , 21 ) ( Figure 1 ).…”

Section: State-of-the-artmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They developed a master-slave system in which a pre-curved steel rod is read out by the master, which passes the pose information to a Ø5 mm slave shaft that mimics the shape of the steel rod. A second fully mechanically-controlled and cable-driven prototype is the so-called MemoFlex II ( 21 ). This device has a snake-like shaft of 16 segments that are steered by steering cables.…”

Section: State-of-the-artmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, in this work, we propose a fully mechanical solution that allows real-time control of FTL shape-shifting devices, such as the one proposed by Helselmans et al ( 21 ). The memory system mechanically memorizes the pose information of the leading segment and propagates the shape to the follower segments.…”

Section: State-of-the-artmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using a pre-defined physical track, however, means that the track cannot be changed in real-time but can only follow the pre-defined path, which is a disadvantage ( 21 ). Discretizing the pre-defined physical track into a set of steering elements that can be translated into position and locked gives a solution ( Figures 3D,E ).…”

Section: Concept Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

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MemoBox: A mechanical follow-the-leader system for minimally invasive surgery

Culmone

Jager²,

Breedveld³

2022

Front. Med. Technol.

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With the increase in Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery procedures, there is an increasing demand for surgical instruments with additional degrees of freedom, able to travel along tortuous pathways and guarantee dexterity and high accuracy without compromising the surrounding environment. The implementation of follow-the-leader motion in surgical instruments allows propagating the decided shape through its body and moving through curved paths avoiding sensitive areas. Due to the limited operational area and therefore the instrument size, the steerable shaft of these instruments is usually driven by cables that are externally actuated. However, a large number of degrees of freedom requires a great number of actuators, increasing the system complexity. Therefore, our goal was to design a new memory system able to impose a follow-the-leader motion to the steerable shaft of a medical instrument without using actuators. We present a memory mechanism to control and guide the cable displacements of a cable-driven shaft able to move along a multi-curved path. The memory mechanism is based on a programmable physical track with a mechanical interlocking system. The memory system, called MemoBox, was manufactured as a proof-of-concept demonstration model, measuring 70 mm × 64 mm × 6 mm with 11 programmable elements and featuring a minimum resolution of 1 mm. The prototype shows the ability to generate and shift complex 2D pathways in real-time controlled by the user.

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Section: State-of-the-artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: State-of-the-artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: State-of-the-artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Concept Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

MemoBox: A mechanical follow-the-leader system for minimally invasive surgery

Culmone

Jager²,

Breedveld³

2022

Front. Med. Technol.

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“…The helix structure has inspired various components that make up the continuum mechanism. With respect to the helical wire routing, wire with helix of large pitch was arranged to miniaturize routing of cables 15 and to make more dexterous motion in distal end of steerable part 16 or its spiral configuration. 17 , 18 It was also applied to helical arrangement of fibers to generate the wormlike motion (axial extension, radial expansion).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

DNA-Helix Inspired Wire Routing in Cylindrical Structures and Its Application to Flexible Surgical Devices

Ryu

Tae

2022

Soft Robotics

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In general wire-driven continuum robot mechanisms, the wires are used to control the motion of the devices attached at the distal end. The slack and taut wire is one of the challenging issues to solve in flexible mechanism. This phenomenon becomes worse when the continuum robot is inserted into the natural orifices of the human body, which inherently have uncertain curvilinear geometries consisting of multiple curvatures. Inspired by the unique characteristic of DNA-helix structure that the length of the helix remains almost constant regardless of the deflection of the DNA structure, this article proposes a new idea to design useful flexible mechanism to resolve slack of wires. Using modern Lie-group screw theory, the analytic model for length of helix wire wrapped around a single flexible backbone is proposed and then extended to a general model with multiple flexible backbones and different curvatures. Taking advantage of this helix type wire mechanism, we designed and implemented a flexible surgical device suitable for laryngopharyngeal surgery. The effectiveness of the proposed flexible mechanism is demonstrated through both simulation and phantom experiment.

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Continuum Robots: An Overview

Russo

Sadati

Dong

et al. 2023

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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When thinking of robots, the image that immediately springs to mind is either an android, designed to resemble human beings and mimic their behavior, or an industrial manipulator, for example, a large machine of rigid steel working in an assembly line. However, robotic systems of multiple forms have been developed to carry out the most diverse tasks, with designs that evolved from readily available structures, such as vehicles, or inspired by nature. In the last decade, more and more bioinspired designs have been enabled by advances in computer science, materials, and manufacturing. Among them, continuum robots, inspired by snakes, trunks, and tendrils, are characterized by a compliant backbone capable of continuous bending, whose shape (configuration, i.e., position and orientation along the backbone curve) is controlled by applying loads through onboard "intrinsic" actuators (e.g., pneumatics or hydraulics) or transmission elements (e.g., tendons, rods, or compliant tubes) that are pushed/pulled from an extremity of the backbone ("extrinsic actuation"). These robots have flexible bodies with a high length to cross-section diameter ratio and are uniquely suited to tasks that require the deployment of tools or sensors with a long reach into tortuous and narrow paths. [1] Continuum robots were first developed in the 1960s [2] and rose to prominence in the late 1990s, [3] when they were often called elephant trunk, [4] tentacle/tendril, [5] or flexible [6] manipulators. Whereas other robots were characterized by intrinsic actuation and larger sizes, research on continuum robots first focused on miniaturization for medical applications, [7,8] leading to extrinsic actuation to enable leaner designs. Recently, continuum robots have been developed for a wider range of applications, including manufacturing, aerospace, search and rescue, and nuclear. In such scenarios, the infinite degrees of freedom (DoFs) of these slender robots enable inspection and intervention in areas that cannot be accessed by conventional robots (e.g., tunnels [9] and gas turbines [10] ).An exhaustive literature search (see Appendix) outlines a surging interest in continuum robots, with a 19.6% average annual growth in publications between 2012 and 2021 (continuum robot search on Web of Science). Three main topics can be observed in recent literature surveys, listed in Table 1. DesignTendon-driven and concentric tube robots are predominant in surveys, but they are not the only design solutions. [18] This richer literature can be attributed to intense research effort toward medical and other small-scale applications when compared to larger-scale tasks (e.g., manipulation) where intrinsic actuation is advantageous.

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The MemoFlex II, a non-robotic approach to follow-the-leader motion of a snake-like instrument for surgery using four predetermined physical tracks

Cited by 9 publications

References 32 publications

MemoBox: A mechanical follow-the-leader system for minimally invasive surgery

MemoBox: A mechanical follow-the-leader system for minimally invasive surgery

DNA-Helix Inspired Wire Routing in Cylindrical Structures and Its Application to Flexible Surgical Devices

Continuum Robots: An Overview

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