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A multifunctional minirobot system for endoscopy

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The MUSYC Project aims at investigating and exploiting an innovative concept for endoscopy in the lower gastrointestinal tract (colonoscopy). The MUSYC Project will exploit mechatronics and robotics technologies for obtaining less painful, faster and safer systems for colonoscopy, a widely perceived and real requirement for endoscopists. This goal will be pursued through an innovative approach involving the development of a miniature robotic system able to propel semi-autonomously in the colon lumen by inchworm locomotion under teleoperation and/or supervision by the endoscopist.

The MUSYC project will address a number of problems related to scientific and technological research, such as the biological effects of a robot system moving semi-autonomously in a cavity of the body; locomotion principles for miniature machines in body cavities; the design of new medical microactuators and their control; the control of miniature machines in the human body; the design of appropriate human/machine interfaces; techniques for reflecting sensory information from micro surgical tools to the operator; new techniques for intracavitary diagnosis and intervention; software for 3D "virtual" colonoscopy; methods for matching pre- and intra-operative images in order to offer the surgeon a 3D spatial understanding during intervention. The MUSYC project is a user's needs-driven project and seeks to produce concrete and demonstrable results, usable in clinical practice. To this aim the MUSYC project will develop and test a demonstrator system including the following components and subsystems: a miniature robotic system (comprising a "mothership" and a small diameter, flexible tail containing the channels required for service functions) able to propel semi-autonomously in the colon, under the supervision of the operator; an advanced human/machine interface; two miniature arms located at the distal end of the mothership and carrying surgical and diagnostic microinstruments; a very high quality miniaturised imaging subsystem, based on a CCD camera located at the mothership; a multi-modal display system capable of displaying to the operator the output of different sensors along with the images provided by the microcamera. Extensive in vitro evaluation and some in vivo testing of the performance of the single components, of the subsystems, and of the complete robotic system will be performed in order to assess the validity of the adopted design and technological solutions. Attention will be paid to aspects important for future clinical application and industrial production, such as compliance with regulations and directives, safety, quality, choice of materials, easy cleaning and sterilisation.

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SCUOLA SUPERIORE DI STUDI UNIVERSITARI E DI PERFEZIONAMENTO S. ANNA DI PISA
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