Page 87 - Flexible Robotics in Medicine

Cable-driven flexible endoscope utilizing diamond-shaped perforations: FlexDiamond 71
Table 3.15: Keywords search using Boolean operators.

Boolean
operator Terminology Rationale
AND “Nasopharyngeal The prototype will fundamentally be a nasoscope.
endoscope”; “nasoscope”
“Flexible manipulator” The design uses continuum flexibility. For most continuum
manipulator designs, the material must be flexible. From this
perspective, a niche subset of pre-curved rigid tubes are excluded
from the search for flexible manipulators.
“Cable-driven The design is actuated by cables and other designs using cable
manipulator” may have similar concepts that we wish to consider evaluating.
“Endoscope” The prototype is a subset of an endoscope, and searching broadly
may help widen the search.
“Robotic arm”; The design focus is in the bending region, and robotic
“continuum robot” manipulators may have designs that have similar fundamental
principles with the bending concept.
OR “Home-based” As this is a relatively new field, we would like to narrow the search
to the similar home-based prototype, but it was too specific a
term to search on its own.
“Portable” Most endoscopes for the purpose of operations such as natural
orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery are not portable, and in
consideration of home-based, we would like to associate the
prototype with portability.

All OR terminologies are coupled with each individual AND terminology.
representative patents were analyzed in terms of relevance and differences
(Table 3.16 3.19).

3.6.3 Analysis

3.7 Conclusion

FlexDiamond is a feasible prototype to provide a large bending angle of 90 degrees and
sees the possibility of developing subsequent prototypes with an even larger bending radius.
The key feature of the prototype, which is the mechanical zooming segment, can
significantly improve the image quality and reduce subject discomfort. This is an essential
aspect of the prototype with an innovative design with soft robotics.

Further improvements are needed in order to produce a more comprehensive and functional
nasopharyngeal explorer. Although the experiments demonstrated a 90-degree bending
angle in both the x- and y-axes, which are sufficient to pass the prototype testing (flask-
model test), the current articulation range is far lower than the articulation range of most