Smart Actuators for Colonoscope Actuation

In recent years, much has been studied on the colonoscope because it is a very important tool for diagnosing colon cancer, which is the second leading cause of cancer in the developed countries. Colonoscopy is one of the most technically demanding endoscopic examinations in the modern health service. This is a procedure often painful for the patient and complex for the surgeon. The conventional process involves manual insertion and manoeuvring of the colonoscope by the surgeon, which may lead to some problems like intestine perforation that might occur when the colon wall is punctured due to the colonscope being forcibly pushed by the surgeon to ease its penetration through difficult corners. Therefore, it is important to redesign conventional wired colonoscope devices to facilitate their safe insertion and navigation into the bowel. This project is concerned with the development of electromagnetic actuators, which can produce uniformly distributed magnetic field capable of generating high magnetic thrust forces. In this activity, different actuators have been investigated for the purpose of colonoscope actuation through difficult corners of the colon, which would improve its penetration problems and reduce the intestine perforation problems. ANSYS, finite element analysis, FEA, software has been utilised to design the electromagnetic circuits of the actuators which incorporate magnetic and non-magnetic materials that could generate the magnetic force required for the navigation and actuation of the colonoscope. The mechanical design of these actuators was then carried out using Solidworks CAD software.