Single and multiple robotic capsules for endoluminal diagnosis and surgery

This paper presents a novel approach toward minimally invasive endoluminal diagnosis and therapy based both on single robotic capsules and combinations of multiple robotic capsules. By considering the peculiar features of the different districts of the gastrointestinal tract and the different tasks to be performed here (i.e. diagnosis or intervention), the authors introduce the multiple (two or more) capsule solution with two objectives: (1) improving diagnosis in terms of inspection time, capsule active locomotion, visualization and communication performance, etc.; (2) realizing complicate kinematics for real surgical tasks, often requiring a bi-manual teleoperated approach. Several prototypal devices and proofs of concepts are introduced and discussed, by explaining their applicability both for the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract.