Endoscope shaft-rigidity control mechanism: "FORGUIDE".

Recent developments in flexible endoscopy and other fields of medical technology have raised the need for compact slender shafts that can be made rigid and compliant at will. A novel compact mechanism, named FORGUIDE, with this functionality was developed. The FORGUIDE shaft rigidifies due to friction between a ring of cables situated between a spring and an inflated tube. A mathematical model for the FORGUIDE mechanism working principle was made and used to obtain understanding of this mechanism, predict the maximum rigidity of a FORGUIDE shaft design, and tune its design variables. The mathematical model gave suggestions for significant performance improvement by fine-tuning the design. A prototype FORGUIDE shaft was built and put to a series of bench tests. These tests showed that the FORGUIDE mechanism provides a reliable and simple way to control the rigidity of a flexible shaft.