• 한국정밀공학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국정밀공학회 2001년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
• /
• pp.869-872
• /
• 2001

A new in-pipe locomotive mechanism is developed using piezoelectric bimorphs. Two bimorphs are linked serially and produce an ellipsoidal motion at the end of bimorph. The device moves by the friction force between the rubber attached at the bimorph end and the inner surface of the pipe. The developed mechanism is very simple and need relatively small power compared to a conventional multi-layer piezoelectric motor.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
• /
• 제26권2호
• /
• pp.314-321
• /
• 2002

An endoscope is usually inserted into the human body for the inspection of the gullet, stomach, and large intestine (colon) and this may cause discomfort to patients and damage to tissues during diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. This situation necessitates a self-propelling endoscope. There are many kinds of mechanism to move in a rigid pipe. However, these methods are difficult to apply directly to the endoscope. The main reason is that human intestine cannot be considered as a uniform, straight, and rigid pipe. This paper proposes a flexible loop wheel mechanism, which is adaptable to the human intestine. This mechanism is designed and fabricated by a simple modeling, and tested by an experiment. Finally, the actuator is inserted into the pig colon.