An SMA-based flexible active endoscope for minimal invasive surgery

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Abstract
In this paper we describe the design, fabrication and testing of an active endoscope for minimal invasive surgery (MIS). The device has a silicone rubber body with 8 mm outer diameter and 40 mm length. This configuration has two bending degrees of freedom. The device is actuated by three miniature SMA springs, which are heated by Joule effect and cooled by a forced air flow. The actuators are located in three lumina (1.5 mm diameter) of the endoscope. The active endoscope incorporates a fibre optic bundle for visual inspection which has been used in the current experiments to measure the performance of the endoscope tip in terms of bending angles and directivity.

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