A Semi-Autonomous Control Mode for Flexible Steerable Intraluminal Platforms

Flexible steerable intraluminal robot platforms allow treatment and screening of colorectal cancer at an early stage, potentially reducing the associated incidence and mortality rates. Such robotic platforms often rely on a tree-like flexible architecture, with a flexible robotized body carrying both the endoscope camera and two robotized flexible surgical arms at its distal end. Telemanipulating these robotic platforms to correctly perform surgical tasks is technically difficult due to their kinematic complexity and the demanding nature of the task, which leads to potential interruptions in the surgical workflow. In this paper, a technique to efficiently control the arms and body and correctly perform complex surgical steps during the endoscopic submucosal dissection procedure is proposed. The technique, referred to as semi-autonomous arm-body control, is based on a quadratic programming controller. Custom-defined tasks synergistically control the arms and body, while avoiding unsafe positions for the arms. Experiments in a mixed physical-simulated setup with eight users show an increased performance on the task and smoother movements compared to manual telemanipulation, at the expense of a slightly longer operating time. Further study will look at validating the approach in more realistic scenarios.