Background

In-vivo medical robots(IMR) aim to travel throughout the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), conducting diagnostics and microsurgeries from within offering a safer, shorter and simpler option to traditional surgery. However, numerous IMR do not make it into the medical industry due to limitations in bench top testings and the inability of current gastrointestinal simulators to accurately quantify and replicate peristaltic motion.

Aim

This project aims to enhance the simulation and optimisation of IMR, by quantifying and developing a wirelessly powered peristaltic motion simulator.

Methods

A mechanical peristaltic simulator was developed with an ecoflex enclosure to better simulate the conditions and properties. Amplitude, wavelength and velocity were varied and the resultant motion was observed and tracked. Results were then tracked and coordinates were extracted.

Results

Through comparing the obtained results to tracking data of a videofluoroscopic recording of a patient swallowing water a model for peristaltic motion was derived. 

Discussion 

This study presents the development of a mechanical peristaltic motion simulator for the evaluation of IMR as it travels throughout the GIT, in combination with the developed phantom esophagus the simulator is capable of mimicking peristaltic motion with up to a 79.9% similarity when compared to patient-specific data.  However the resolution and degrees of freedom is constricted mainly by the number of ports available on the microcontroller. We envisage the use of this simulator to better evaluate future IMRs and reduce the number of animal trials conducted. Future works include the development of a secondary simulator and a phantom esophagus with realistic structures to better stimulate peristaltic motion.