[Design and research of a pneumatic soft intestine robot imitating the inchworm].

Journal: Sheng wu yi xue gong cheng xue za zhi = Journal of biomedical engineering = Shengwu yixue gongchengxue zazhi
PMID: 40000202

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 pig small intestine. The running speed in the 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.

Authors

  • Yongsheng He
    State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, P. R. China.
  • Zhijun Sun
    Department of Cardiology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
  • Jie Yuan
    Key Laboratory of Engineering Biology for Low-Carbon Manufacturing, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Center of Technology Innovation for Synthetic Biology, No. 32, Xiqi Road, Tianjin Airport Economic Park, Tianjin 300308, China.
  • Congwen Wei
    State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, P. R. China.
  • Guowei Han
    State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, P. R. China.
  • Xiaocheng Chu
    State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, P. R. China.

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