A Study on a Soft Growing Robotic Colonoscope for Pain-Relief Insertion in Endoluminal Procedures

1. Funding Agency

National Research Foundation of Korea, Korea Health Industry Development Institute, Naver

2. Motivation

Conventional endoscopes often cause pain and tissue strain due to their rigidity. We aim to overcome this by leveraging the compliant, eversion-based growth of vine robots to develop a soft endoscope suitable for safe and strain-free colonoscopy.

3. Objectives

“Developing Soft growing endoscope that has essential functions for colonoscopy while preserving the vine robot’s inherent advantages”

4. Ongoing Progress

Designing the controller

Enhancing key functionalities

5. Related Publications

• A Soft Growing Robotic Endoscope for Painless and Strain-free Insertion (Soft robotics, Accepted)
• Self-retractable soft growing robots for reliable and fast retraction while preserving their inherent advantages (RA-L)

6. Contact

• Nam Gyun Kim