Development of an Automatically Adjustable Colonoscope

Colonoscopy can be associated with many problems, such as mechanical trauma due to the distal tip contacting the colon wall or health issues due to the extended use of anesthesia. In order to eliminate these complications, an automatically adjustable colonoscope was designed. This device uses sensors, actuators, and a control system to automatically position the distal tip in the center of the colon lumen. The sensors were tested to determine their ability to accurately sense the distance from the tip to the surface of a white PVC tube. The actuators were tested to determine the correlation between motor rotation and displacement of the distal tip. The control system was tested to assess the ability of the device to position the tip in the center of the test tube and the ability to navigate through a flat test course. It was determined that the sensors could accurately determine distances from 0 mm to 15 mm from the test surface in all test conditions. The motors for up-down movement and left-right movement of the colonoscope had response times of 0.57 s and 0.69 s, respectively, when the motors were rotated from 0 deg to 90 deg. The control system was able to safely move the colonoscope tip away from all walls of the test apparatus. It was also able to navigate through the flat test course without coming in contact with the walls. The automatically adjustable colonoscope has demonstrated that it can safely and effectively position the distal tip to avoid contact with the walls of the test surface.