A bio-inspired self-propelling endoscopic device for inspecting the large intestine

This article presents an inchworm-inspired, pneumatic, endoscopic device intended to navigate inside a colon. The device consists of a propulsion segment with two linear balloons and two gripper segments with four twisted balloons. The three segments can be sequentially actuated by pressurized air, which achieves a propulsive motion like an inchworm. Experimental results of the pneumatic characteristics show that the device has excellent adaptability to pipes of different diameters and good controllability of the propulsion velocity. The device is flexible enough to pass through an elbow pipe without requiring special controls, and the inspection performance of a device equipped with a camera in a flexible pipe is also presented. Moreover, the device is able to advance in an excised swine colon, which shows its great potential for applications in colonoscopy.