Page 315 - Flexible Robotics in Medicine

Design evolution of a flexible robotic bending end-effector for transluminal explorations 305

13.5.3 Electronic components

Electronics-wise, we use the Arduino UNO board along with two Adafruit motor shields.
One Adafruit motor shield can power and control two stepper motors. The SparkFun
joystick shield was used as the controller, as it is simply built with four buttons and a
joystick, resulting in a gentle learning curve for users. The joystick controls the translation
motion of the nasopharyngoscope, whereas the top, bottom, left, and right buttons control
the bending motion upward, downward, left, and right, respectively. On top of all these,
these four circuit boards are able to stack on each other, thus making BEE electronics
component compact and easily portable (Fig. 13.17).

To assemble the electronics components together, both motor shields were stacked on the
Arduino board, as shown with all ports of the Arduino board being utilized. The joystick
shield was then connected using jumper wires, due to physical obstruction by the VIN
jumper that was required to operate the motor shield. This further facilitated the control of
BEE from a distance, which better increases the ease of use. The electronic components
were powered by a single 12 V power source.

13.5.4 Joystick control

BEE can be controlled with a joystick and button interface via the SparkFun joystick shield
integrated into the device. The joystick serves to control the stepper motor responsible for
translational motion, whereas the top and bottom buttons and left and right buttons are
paired to each of the two stepper motors responsible for rotational motion. In this way, the
user can intuitively understand how to operate BEE without much prior experience.

Nasopharyngoscope provides real-time monitoring and analysis of the nasal cavity for
clinicians, and it is commonly used to survey the recurrence of NPC. Hence, flexible
endoscopes are more popular. The usual process of monitoring the nasal cavity is first to
clean the nose to remove excess mucus. The endoscope will then be inserted into the nose,
along with the floor of the nose and to the nasopharynx. Once the tip of the scope reaches
the cavity, there is a wide field of view and analysis can then be performed. Below is the
final design of the BEE with the assumption that the conical flask is the entry of the nose.

13.5.5 Other prototype factors

Deployment of BEE can be divided into four simple steps, each described by a
corresponding illustrative diagram in Figs. 13.18 13.21.

It is of utmost importance to be fully aware of how to use BEE properly with the above
instructions and other prototype specifications (Figs. 13.18 13.22).