A Fully Autonomous Microrobotic Endoscopy System

In this paper, design of an autonomous microrobotic endoscopy system is presented. The proposed microrobotic endoscope is a vision-guided device, developed to facilitate navigation inside a human colon. The design of the entire system is divided into three areas viz. design of a microrobotic carrier, path planning and guidance, and an off-board control system. A microrobotic design based on pneumatic mechanisms to achieve locomotion and steering is explained. General mathematical analysis governing the differential steering of the robotic tip is also described. The path planning of the microrobot is carried out based on the sensory fusion utilizing the quantitative parameters from the captured images and the tactile sensors. A real-time image segmentation scheme is described for extracting the lumen from endoscopic images. An off-board control system to control the directional movements of the microrobot is also explained. The proposed endoscopy system was tested with physical models and animal colons and the experimental observations are presented.