Development of Advanced Soft Robotic System for Endoscopic Surgery and In Situ 3D Bioprinting with Haptic Display

Gastrointestinal (GI) cancer is a leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Early removal of adenomatous polyps offers a fantastic outcome, with a 5-year survival rate exceeding 90%. Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is a minimally invasive approach to removing GI polyps, known for its high success in achieving en bloc resection. Despite the benefits of ESD with its low complication rates and short hospital stays, existing technologies have several limitations such as the need for multiple tools during the procedure and high force loss caused by rigid cables with nonlinear friction and backlash hysteresis. The nonlinearity can lead to imprecise control of surgical tools while the force loss hinders the tool's ability to access lesions located in the transverse and ascending colons. In addition, no endoscopic robots are equipped with soft 3D bioprinting capabilities to deliver in situ wound sealants for defect tissues. Finally, existing systems lack real-time force sensing and haptic display compared to open surgery, making optimal surgical procedures challenging. This thesis will develop a multifunctional and flexible soft robotic endoscopic system that can perform ESD and in situ 3D bioprinting. The new system features a high degree of freedom soft surgical head integrated into a long and flexible snake-like robotic arm that can access confined and hard-to-reach areas via small skin incisions or natural orifices. The device has a user-friendly design with a master-slave architecture and is operated by kinematic inversion models and a learning-based controller for precise tip motions. In addition, the system is equipped with a new 3D force sensor and an advanced haptic display that can efficiently reproduce the sense of touch for a better endoscopic procedure. The whole system is driven by a new soft microtubule artificial muscle (SMAM) that can be programmed to elongate and contract under hydraulic pressure. Mathematical models and advanced control algorithms are proposed to reduce the system's nonlinearity ...