Multi-section continuum robot for endoscopic surgical clipping of intracranial aneurysms.

We propose the development and assessment of a multi-section continuum robot for endoscopic surgical clipping of intracranial aneurysms. The robot has two sections for bending actuated by tendon wires. By actuating the two sections independently, the robot can generate a variety of posture combinations by these sections while maintaining the tip angle. This feature offers more flexibility in positioning of the tip than a conventional endoscope for large viewing angles of up to 180 degrees. To estimate the flexible positioning of the tip, we developed kinematic mapping with friction in tendon wires. In a kinematic-mapping simulation, the two-section robot at the target scale (i.e., an outer diameter of 1.7 mm and a length of 60 mm) had a variety of tip positions within 50-mm ranges at the 180 degree-angled view. In the experimental validation, the 1:10 scale prototype performed the three salient postures with different tip positions at the 1800-angled view.