The aim of this Capita Selecta assignment is to remotely control bending around two axes of a single soft-actuated endoscope segment, and to provide the operator with haptic feedback regarding the endoscope's tip.
As a master device, a Phantom Omni - a 6-DOF haptic device with three dimensional force feedback - is used to control the endoscope segment, or the slave system. Since the user will remotely control the bending segment, some end-effector forces can be transferred to the user. When the endoscope is bent inside an unknown environment like a patient's body, it is possible that the tip will push into untargeted organs or regions.
The soft-robotic nature of actuation will act as a mechanical fail-safe, but still the operator needs feedback regarding the interaction forces at the tip of the end-effector. Therefore the control loop will provide the user with the radial forces that surrounding tissues may exert on the endoscope's tip. To realize this, a sensor attachment will be designed that is capable of measuring these radial forces.