Design and research of a pneumatic soft intestine robot imitating the inchworm.
10.7507/1001-5515.202409028
- Author:
Yongsheng HE
1
;
Zhijun SUN
1
;
Jie YUAN
2
;
Congwen WEI
1
;
Guowei HAN
1
;
Xiaocheng CHU
1
Author Information
1. State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, P. R. China.
2. Department of Gastroenterology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210006, P. R. China.
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Cylindrical rubber film;
Inchworm motion;
Intestinal robot;
Nonlinear expansion
- MeSH:
Animals;
Swine;
Robotics/instrumentation*;
Equipment Design;
Intestine, Small/physiology*;
Intestines/physiology*;
Humans
- From:
Journal of Biomedical Engineering
2024;41(6):1137-1144
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
In order to seek a patient friendly and low-cost intestinal examination method, a structurally simple pneumatic soft intestinal robot inspired by inchworms is designed and manufactured. The intestinal robot was consisted of two radially expanding cylindrical rubber film airbags for anchoring and one low density polyethylene film airbag for axial elongation, which achieved movement in the intestine by mimicking the crawling of inchworms. Theoretical derivation was conducted on the relationship between the internal air pressure of the anchored airbag and the free deformation size after expansion, and it pointed out that the uneven deformation of the airbag was a phenomenon of expansion instability caused by large deformation of the rubber material. The motion performance of the intestinal robot was validated in different sizes of hard tubes and ex vivo pig small intestine. The running speed in the ex vivo pig small intestine was 4.87 mm/s, with an anchoring force of 2.33 N when stationary, and could smoothly pass through a 90 ° bend. This work expects to provide patients with a new method of low pain and low-cost intestinal examination.
