New softer robotic arm ‘could aid endoscopic surgery’

A new type of flexible endoscope that combines pop-up fabrication with soft robotics has been developed by US researchers.

Scientists from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and the Harvard John A Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have developed a hybrid rigid-soft robotic arm for endoscopes with integrated sensing, flexibility and multiple degrees of freedom.

Typical endoscopes rely on rigid surgical tools to manipulate or remove tissue, reducing dexterity and sensitivity. To solve this, the new arm lies flat on the endoscope until it arrives at the desired location, before popping up to assist in surgical procedures.

It integrates soft fluidic microactuators into the rigid pop-up structures, resulting in soft pop-up mechanisms that increased the performance of the actuators in terms of force output and the predictability and controllability of the motion.

Dr Sheila Russo, postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute and lead author of the paper, said: "The idea behind this technology is basically to obtain the best of both worlds by combining soft robotic technologies with origami-inspired rigid structures."

It has also been shown that the device can be scaled down to one millimetre, which would allow it to be used in tight endoscopic procedures in the lungs or brain.

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