Adjustable Stiffness Techniques Endoscope for Minimally Invasive Surgery

Abstract

Soft robotics has several benefits over standard rigid robotics in situations requiring safety and dexterity, especially in minimally invasive surgery (MIS). The STIFF-FLOP manipulation has previously been proposed as a new approach for developing endoscopic instruments with great dexterity and inherent safety utilising soft substances. However, because of its intrinsic low stiffness, the capacity to create larger forces and stabilisation when needed has to be researched further. There is currently no ideal solution with current technology that fulfils all of the required stiffness variation and dexterity standards. This research offers a novel Parallel Chamber Endoscope (PCE) module design that can perform the needed bending and improving the variation of the endoscope stiffness. The suggested design is based on finite element (FE) modelling with ANSYS programme. The PCE module dimensions sensitivities are analysed. Then the sensitive dimensions are optimized by employing a gradient-based optimization approach. The results reveal that the novel PCE module outperforms earlier techniques that used comparable designs with a larger stiffness variation paired with a considerable degree of flexibility.