• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.954-959
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• 2003

Colonoscopy is an important medical procedure for the diagnosis of various diseases like cancers in the colon and rectum. But it requires a lot of time for a doctor to acquire dexterous skills necessary to perform successful colonoscopy. Moreover, to many patients, conventional colonoscopy simply takes too long time. Therefore, some studies on the development of autonomous and more convenient colonoscope are carried out. In this Paper, we Propose a functional colonoscope robot system that has a locomotive function with a hollow body, a steering system, and other basic functions of typical conventional colonoscope systems. The concept and each component of the functional colonoscope system are described in this paper. In order to evaluate the functional performance of the colonoscope robot, we carried out in -vitro and in-vivo tests.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.1638-1644
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• 2002

A novel locomotion using the pneumatic impulsive actuator was proposed for robotic colonoscope. This locomotion showed good moving performance in the environment of rigid pipe, however, the displacement per one impact(step displacement) is greatly reduced due to the low stiffness and high damping characteristics of the colon. Therefore, the modeling technique based on spring and damping system is studied to predict the step displacement and some parametric studies are carried out to investigate main parameters that influence the step displacement of locomotion. Based on simulation result, a new locomotion to control the resistance force is suggested and fabricated. Through the experiment on the colon, the usefulness of modeling technique is confirmed and successful improvement of moving characteristics is achieved.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.345-350
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• 2002

In recent years, as changing the habit of eating, the pathology in the colon grows up annually. The colonoscopy is generalized, but if requires much time to acquire a dexterous skill to perform an operation and the procedure is painful to the patient. biomedical and robotic researchers are developing a locomotive colonoscope that can travel safe1y in colon. In this paper, we propose a new actuator and concept of semi-autonomous colonoscope. The micro robot comprises camera and LED for diagnosis, steer- ing system to pass through the loop, pneumatic actuator and bow-shaped flexible supporters to control a contact force and to pass over haustral folds in colon. For locomotion of semi-autonomous colonoscope, we suggest an actuator that is based on impact force between a cylinder and a piston. In order to validate the concept and the performance of the actuator, we carried out the simulation of moving characteristics and the preliminary experiments in rigid pipes and on the colon of pig.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.57-61
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• 2005

This paper presents a new colonoscopy training simulator that includes a specialized haptic device and graphics algorithms to transfer haptic sensation through a long and flexible tube, and manage large number of polygons. The developed haptic device makes the colonoscope tube move along the two guiding rods in the translational direction. The torque of the roll motion is transferred by a timing belt and pulleys. A special guide is developed, which allows the force and torque from the motors to be transmitted to the user without loss. The haptic device is evaluated by physicians. One of the important skills of the colonoscopy, jiggling is incorporated for the first time by the developed sensor mechanism using photo-sensors. A colonoscope handle that shares the look, feel, and functions with the actual colonoscope, is developed with the necessary electronics inside. The number of polygons is reduced by an edge-collapse algorithm for real-time simulation. The algorithms to import CT data, to segment the colon image, to extract centerline of the colon, and to construct the colon surface, are integrated into a Colon Modeling Kit system that performs all these processes in real-time.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06b
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• pp.295-300
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• 2001

In recent years, as changing the habit of eating, the pathology in the colon grows up annually. For that reason, the colonoscopy is generalized. But it requires much time to acquire a dexterous skill to perform an operation. And the procedure is painful to the patient. Therefore, biomedical and robotic researchers are developing a locomotive colonoscope that can travel safely in colon. In this paper, we propose a novel design and concept of semi-autonomous colonoscope and two actuators for the micro robot. The micro robot comprises camera and LED for diagnosis, steering system to pass through the loop, pneumatic actuator and bow-shaped flexible supporters to control a contact force and to keep the space between colon wall and the actuator. For actuating mechanism, we suggest two models. One is based on the reaction force, and the other is impact force. In order to validate the concept and the performance of the actuators, we carried out the preliminary experiments in rigid pipes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.1296-1301
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• 2002

In recent years, the pathology in the colon grows up annually since people of all ages prefer to have less fiber and more fat food. Therefore, the colonoscopy is generalized in developed countries. But it requires much time to acquire a dexterous skill to perform an operation and the procedure is painful to the patient. Therefore, some studies on the development of autonomous colonoscope are carried out. In this paper, we propose a new and simple locomotive mechanism that can be propelled by elliptic motion of a leg. It has several legs that have constant phase difference each other and those legs are disposed along the upper and lower of the body. In order to evaluate the performance of locomotive mechanism, we carried out the simulations of moving characteristics and the experiments in the colon of a dead pig.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06b
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• pp.271-276
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• 2001

Conventional clonoscope is semiflexible tube that should be manipulated by operator for inspection and treatment. Therefore, it sometimes causes pain for the patient and even perforation to the wall of colon if a surgeon is not well trained. For safe colonoscopy, self-propelling robots with inchworm locomotion are studied. But, inchworm locomotion has some problems in adaptiveness to the variation of colon diameter. In this paper, we propose novel locomotive mechanism which can move in the colon without any external assistance. It has several cams that have constant phase difference each other and located along the centerline of the mechanism. This mechanism could realize the robotic endoscope which has continuous and smooth thrust force.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.521-526
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• 2016

This paper suggests a new design that makes use of rotary inertia that can allow autonomous movement of an autonomous colonoscope robot in the colon of a patient as a locomotive mechanism. As commercial colonoscopy causes a lengthy time of pain and discomfort to the patients when colonoscopy patients are reluctant to receive surgery, there is a tendency to avoid the test in the early diagnosis of colorectal cancer. To solve this problem, research has been conducted on the next generation of robotic colonoscopes that can reduce the discomfort and pain by moving autonomously within the colon of the patients. In the driving mechanism utilizing the rotational inertia, a flywheel is driven by a motor to store energy and produce rotational inertia. By the energy stored and released by the flywheel, the stick phenomenon that occurs when the robot is running in the intestine can be overcome effectively. To do this, a controller that can control the velocity of the flywheel and is robust to high frequency noise was designed and implemented. The driving mechanism using the rotational inertia presented here showed that the structure is also effective and the experiment can be run easily compared to another mechanism.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.789-795
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• 2010

For the reliable clamping of a robotic colonoscope inside the colon, we propose a clamping module consisting of six legs at the front and a trigger at the rear. In addition, a pneumatic-line based locomotive mechanism, which was developed previously for in-pipe inspection, is adopted to reduce the friction force between the pneumatic lines and the locomotion environment. In order to evaluate locomotion performance, a robot with a diameter of 15 mm and a length of 110.250 mm is used. Based on control signal from LabVIEW, it is tested in acrylic pipe and pig's colon. The proposed robot is able to move in the curved path which has a radius of over 25 mm. The speed of the robot is 33 mm/s in a straight path and 12.1 mm/s on a vertical path. The proposed robot, which has one pneumatic line and two clamping modules, conclusively shows reliable locomotion performance under in vitro condition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.291-291
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• 2004

현재 국내에서 꾸준히 증가추세를 보이는 대장관련 질환의 검진과 치료를 위해 대장내시경을 이용한 시술의 빈도가 높아지고 있다. 현재 이용되고 있는 대장내시경은 대부분 구조적으로 굵기는 약 1 cm 이며 길이는 약 1.5 m이다 이러한 내시경은 항문을 통한 삽입이 용이하도록 하기 위해 적당한 유연성과 동시에 축방향의 비교적 큰 Stiffness를 갖고 있으며 최근 개발되고 있는 제품들은 이러한 Stiffness의 조절이 가능하여 삽입이 효과적으로 이루어질 수 있도록 하고 있다.(중략)