Miniaturized surgical devices are promising for the future development of minimally invasive and endoluminal surgery. However, the dexterity and therapeutic functions of these devices are limited. In this paper, a reconfigurable modular robotic system is proposed to perform screening and interventions in the gastrointestinal tract. In the proposed system, millimeter-sized robotic modules are ingested and tasked to assemble into an articulated mechanism in the stomach cavity. The modules are assembled according to the target location to perform precise intervention. Based on this concept, a preliminary report is presented covering the robotic schemes for the endoluminal reconfigurable platform, the design with structural functions, the control strategy, and the interval-based constraint satisfaction algorithm to determine the suitable topologies of the reconfigurable robot for the given task.

This paper describes a novel approach to capsular endoscopy that takes advantage of active magnetic locomotion in the gastrointestinal tract guided by an anthropomorphic robotic arm. Simulations were performed to select the design parameters allowing an effective and reliable magnetic link between the robot end-effector (endowed with a permanent magnet) and the capsular device (endowed with small permanent magnets). In order to actively monitor the robotic endoluminal system and to efficiently perform diagnostic and surgical medical procedures, a feedback control based on inertial sensing was also implemented. The proposed platform demonstrated to be a reliable solution to move and steer a capsular device in a slightly insufflated gastrointestinal lumen.