Magnetic Levitation camera robot for endoscopic surgery

A wired miniature surgical camera robot with a novel Magnetic Levitation System (MLS) was modeled, designed and fabricated. A simple analysis and a theoretical model were developed in order to describe and predict basic behavior for different structural parameters of the system. The robot is composed of two main parts (head and tail) linked by a thin elastic flexible joint. The tail module embeds two magnets for anchoring and manual rough translation. The head module incorporates two motorized donut-shaped magnets and a miniaturized vision system at the tip. The MLS can exploit the external magnetic field to induce a smooth bending of the robotic head, guaranteeing a high span tilt motion of the point of view (0°-80°). The device is 100 mm long and 12.7 mm in diameter. Use of such a robot in single port or standard multiport laparoscopy could enable reduction of number/size of ancillary trocars, and/or increase the number of working devices that can be deployed, thus paving the way for multiple point of view laparoscopy.