AN SMA-BASED FLEXIBLE ACTIVE ENDOSCOPE FOR MINIMAL INVASIVE SURGERY

In this paper we describe the design, fabrication and testing of an ac tive endoscope for minimal invasive surgery (MIS). The device has a si licone rubber body with 8 mm outer diameter and 40 mm length. This con figuration has two bending degrees of freedom. The device is actuated by three miniature SMA springs, which are heated by Joule effect and c ooled by a forced air flow. The actuators are located in three lumina (1.5 mm diameter) of the endoscope. The active endoscope incorporates a fibre optic bundle for visual inspection which has been used in the current experiments to measure the performance of the endoscope tip in terms of bending angles and directivity.