CN110638413A

CN110638413A - Automatic turning endoscope

Info

Publication number: CN110638413A
Application number: CN201910934275.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 马骁萧; 冯宇; 付玲
Original assignee: Huazhong University of Science and Technology; Ezhou Institute of Industrial Technology Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Current assignee: Huazhong University of Science and Technology; Ezhou Institute of Industrial Technology Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Priority date: 2019-09-29
Filing date: 2019-09-29
Publication date: 2020-01-03
Anticipated expiration: 2039-09-29
Also published as: CN110638413B

Abstract

The invention discloses an endoscope capable of automatically turning, which comprises a measuring instrument body, a guide pipe, a probe and a plurality of driving components, wherein the measuring end of the measuring instrument body sequentially penetrates through the guide pipe and the probe, one end of the guide pipe is connected with the measuring instrument body, and the other end of the guide pipe is connected with the probe; the guide pipe comprises a plurality of sections of hoses and a plurality of rotating connecting pieces, the measuring end of the measuring instrument body sequentially penetrates through the plurality of sections of hoses, two adjacent hoses are rotatably connected through the rotating connecting pieces, and an included angle is formed between the rotating directions of the two adjacent rotating connecting pieces; the probe comprises a probe shell, a spherical sleeve and a plurality of piezoresistors, and one end of the probe shell is connected with the catheter; the plurality of driving assemblies correspond to the plurality of rotating connecting pieces one by one; the technical problems that in the prior art, when the probe and the catheter need to turn, a common probe is difficult to realize, and the high-precision probe with multiple movable joints and the catheter are high in manufacturing cost are solved.

Description

Automatic turning endoscope

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of medical instruments, in particular to an endoscope capable of automatically turning.

Background

With the development of modern science and technology, the endoscope is thoroughly reformed and uses optical fiber. In 1963, fiberscopes were produced in Japan, and biopsy devices of fiberscopes were successfully developed in 1964, so that special biopsy forceps for taking biopsies can have proper pathological materials and are low in risk. In 1965, fibercolonoscopes were made, expanding the scope of examination for lower gastrointestinal diseases. In 1967, a magnifying fiberscope was studied to observe microscopic lesions. Fiber optic endoscopes may also be used for in vivo assays, such as measuring in vivo temperature, pressure, displacement, spectral absorption, and other numbers.

However, the existing medical endoscope fills the probe and the catheter into the human body manually, the path of the probe is not straight in the human body, when the ordinary probe and the catheter need to turn in the human body, the ordinary probe and the catheter are easy to support in the human body, discomfort is brought to a patient, the high-precision probe and the catheter with multiple movable joints are needed to realize the function of turning, and then the manufacturing cost is high.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to overcome the technical defects and provide an endoscope capable of automatically turning, and solves the technical problems that in the prior art, when a probe and a catheter need to turn, a common probe is difficult to realize, and the high-precision probe with multiple movable joints and the catheter have high manufacturing cost.

In order to achieve the technical purpose, the technical scheme of the invention provides an endoscope capable of automatically turning, which comprises a measuring instrument body, a guide pipe, a probe and a plurality of driving components, wherein the measuring end of the measuring instrument body sequentially penetrates through the guide pipe and the probe, one end of the guide pipe is connected with the measuring instrument body, and the other end of the guide pipe is connected with the probe; the guide pipe comprises a plurality of sections of hoses and a plurality of rotating connecting pieces, the measuring end of the measuring instrument body sequentially penetrates through the plurality of sections of hoses, two adjacent hoses are rotatably connected through the rotating connecting pieces, and an included angle is formed between the rotating directions of the two adjacent rotating connecting pieces; the probe comprises a probe shell, a spherical sleeve and a plurality of piezoresistors, one end of the probe shell is connected with the guide pipe, the other end of the probe shell is rotatably connected with the spherical sleeve, the piezoresistors are uniformly arranged along the circumferential direction of the probe shell, one ends of the piezoresistors are all installed at one end, close to the spherical sleeve, of the probe shell, and the other ends of the piezoresistors are all abutted to the spherical sleeve; the driving assemblies correspond to the rotating connecting pieces one by one, each hose is provided with one driving assembly, the driving end of each driving assembly drives the hose to rotate around the adjacent hose, and the driving assemblies are electrically connected with the piezoresistors.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the beneficial effects that: sense the probe and receive the direction and the size of pressure force at the patient internal through setting up piezo-resistor, thereby drive assembly receives piezo-resistor's change response, and the drive hose rotates round adjacent hose to whole pipe is buckled, and whole process need not the procedure and edits, inserts the probe in the human body, and the corresponding automation of change of the path route of pipe along with the probe is buckled, and the structure is simple relatively, reduce cost.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the construction of an endoscope of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural view of the catheter of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the connection of the first connecting block to the hose according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing the connection of a second connecting block to a hose according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of portion A of FIG. 1 according to the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, the present invention is described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention.

As shown in fig. 1, the present invention provides an endoscope capable of automatically turning, which includes a measuring apparatus body 100, a plurality of guide tubes 200, a probe 300 and a plurality of driving assemblies 400, wherein a measuring end of the measuring apparatus body 100 sequentially passes through the guide tubes 200 and the probe 300, one end of each guide tube 200 is connected to the measuring apparatus body 100, and the other end of each guide tube 200 is connected to the probe 300, in practice, the guide tube 200 is drawn by the probe 300 into a human body, and the specific conditions inside the human body can be observed through the measuring apparatus body 100, during operation, when one side of the probe 300 touches an obstacle, the probe 300 is subjected to a certain pressure, and the driving assemblies 400 sense the pressure to control the guide tubes 200 to bend, and bring the probe 300 to bend, thereby implementing the function of automatic turning, which will be explained in more detail below.

As shown in fig. 2, the guide tubes 200 in this embodiment each include a plurality of sections of flexible tubes 210 and a plurality of rotating connectors 220, the measuring end of the measuring instrument body 100 sequentially passes through the plurality of sections of flexible tubes 210, two adjacent flexible tubes 210 are rotatably connected by the rotating connectors 220, and an included angle is formed between the rotating directions of two adjacent rotating connectors 220.

Wherein, hose 210 all wraps the one deck insulating layer outward, prevents that body temperature from causing the influence to the driving piece.

Wherein, rotate the structure that connecting piece 220 is similar to the hinge, the middle hollow measuring instrument body 100's of being convenient for measuring end of being convenient for passes, form an contained angle between two adjacent rotation connecting piece 220's the rotation direction, the contained angle can be arbitrary angle, when pipe 200 straightens, the projected contained angle quantity of a plurality of contained angles on pipe 200 cross section is twice as the quantity of piezo-resistor 330, can understand, the quantity of contained angle is more, the precision of control bending is higher, realize certainly that the required manufacturing of function, processing are more difficult.

As shown in fig. 3 to 4, preferably, each of the rotating connectors 220 includes a first connecting block 221, a second connecting block 222 and two rotating shafts 223, opposite sides of the first connecting block 221 and the second connecting block 222 are respectively connected to two adjacent hoses 210, the two rotating shafts 223 are coaxially disposed, and opposite ends of the two rotating shafts 223 sequentially pass through the first connecting block 221 and the second connecting block 222, it is understood that other rotating structures may be adopted instead, for example, two adjacent hoses 210 are connected, the hoses 210 have elasticity and can generate certain deformation, and when an external force is applied to one side, one of the hoses 210 rotates around the other hose 210 and bends.

As shown in fig. 5, the probe 300 in this embodiment includes a probe housing 310, a spherical sleeve 320, and a plurality of piezoresistors 330, wherein one end of the probe housing 310 is connected to the catheter 200, the other end of the probe housing 310 is rotatably connected to the spherical sleeve 320, the piezoresistors 330 are uniformly arranged along the circumference of the probe housing 310, one ends of the piezoresistors 330 are all installed at one end of the probe housing 310 close to the spherical sleeve 320, and the other ends of the piezoresistors 330 are all abutted to the spherical sleeve 320.

The probe housing 310 includes a cylinder 311 and a spherical cylinder 312, one end of the cylinder 311 is connected to the rotary connector 220, the other end of the cylinder 311 is connected to the spherical cylinder 312, the spherical cylinder 312 has a spherical outer wall, the spherical sleeve 320 is sleeved on the spherical cylinder 312, and the spherical sleeve 320 slides around the spherical cylinder 312.

It can be understood that the sliding connection between the outer wall of one end of the spherical cylinder 312 and the inner wall of the spherical cylinder 312 is similar to the structure of a tripod head, the outer diameter of the spherical cylinder 312 is slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the spherical sleeve 320, the spherical sleeve 320 can slide around the spherical cylinder 312, and when one side of the spherical sleeve 320 is pressed, the side of the spherical sleeve 320 close to the spherical cylinder 312 is pressed to the piezoresistor 330 on the cylinder 311.

Preferably, the spherical sleeve 320 is a transparent lens for easy observation.

More preferably, the number of the piezoresistors 330 is four, the number of the corresponding heating members 420 on the same driving assembly 400 is two, two heating members 420 are respectively located at two sides of the corresponding rotating connector 220, one of the heating members 420 can control the expansion bladder 410 to push two adjacent flexible tubes 210 to rotate in one direction, and the other heating member 420 can control the expansion bladder 410 to push two adjacent flexible tubes 210 to rotate in the other direction, and the two rotating directions are located in the same plane and opposite to each other.

Preferably, each piezoresistor 330 is coated with an insulating layer to prevent gastric juice and the like from corroding the piezoresistor 330 and influencing the use of the piezoresistor 330.

In this embodiment, the plurality of driving assemblies 400 correspond to the plurality of rotating connectors 220 one by one, one driving assembly 400 is installed on each flexible tube 210, the driving end of the driving assembly 400 drives the flexible tube 210 to rotate around the adjacent flexible tube 210, and the driving assembly 400 is electrically connected to the piezoresistor 330.

The type of the piezoresistor 330 is 1206, when the piezoresistor 330 is under pressure, the resistance of the piezoresistor 330 changes, the current in the whole current loop changes accordingly, specifically, if the resistance of the piezoresistor is increased, the current in the current loop is decreased, and thus the power of the driving member is decreased; if the resistance of the piezoresistor is smaller, the current in the current loop is larger, so that the power of the driving element is larger, and if the variation value of the current is too small, an amplifier is added.

As shown in fig. 2, each driving assembly 400 includes two expansion bladders 410 and heating members 420 corresponding to the expansion bladders 410 one to one, the two expansion bladders 410 are symmetrically arranged about a central axis of the flexible tubes 210, one end of the expansion bladder 410 is connected to a recess 211 formed in one of the flexible tubes 210, and an expansion direction of the expansion bladder 410 is directed to a rotation direction of the adjacent flexible tube 210, the heating members 420 are installed on the flexible tubes 210, and a heating end of the heating member 420 is adjacent to the corresponding expansion bladder 410.

The driving assembly 400 heats the expansion bladder 410 through the heating element 420, the expansion bladder 410 is filled with an expansion liquid, the expansion liquid expands when heated, the expansion bladder 410 is made of a material with better plastic deformation capability, the expansion bladder 410 increases in volume to abut against the flexible pipe 210, and pushes the flexible pipe 210 to rotate around the adjacent flexible pipe 210.

It will be appreciated that the drive assembly 400 may take the form of other structures instead, as long as it is capable of driving the hoses 210 around adjacent hoses 210.

Preferably, the heating elements 420 are heating resistors, and two heating elements 420 in the same driving assembly 400 are respectively corresponding to two piezoresistors 330 which are oppositely arranged one by one.

For example, to facilitate understanding of the relationship between the piezoresistors 330 and the heating members 420, taking the conduit 200 as a vertical state and taking four piezoresistors 330 as an example for analysis, the clockwise rotation direction along the cross section of the conduit 200 is sequentially divided into a first direction, a second direction, a third direction and a fourth direction, the two adjacent directions are perpendicular to each other, each direction corresponds to one piezoresistor 330, the piezoresistor 330 in the first direction is electrically connected with the heating member 420 in the first direction, the piezoresistor 330 in the second direction is connected with the heating member 420 in the second direction, the piezoresistor 330 in the third direction is electrically connected with the heating member 420 in the third direction, and the piezoresistor 330 in the fourth direction is connected with the heating member 420 in the fourth direction.

It will be appreciated that the heating element 420 may be replaced by other configurations that allow the bladder 410 to deform against the adjacent flexible tube 210.

The working process is as follows: for example, for convenience of understanding, the catheter 200 is taken as a vertical state and the number of the piezoresistors 330 is four for analysis, the clockwise rotation direction along the cross section of the catheter 200 is sequentially divided into a first direction, a second direction, a third direction and a fourth direction, the two adjacent directions are perpendicular to each other, the probe 300 is processed to penetrate into the human body, the probe 300 with the catheter 200 moves, when the spherical sleeve 320 is subjected to an external force in the first direction, the spherical sleeve 320 presses the piezoresistor 330 in the first direction, the resistance of the piezoresistor 330 in the first direction is reduced, the current is increased, the heating power of the heating element 420 in the first direction electrically connected with the piezoresistor 330 in the first direction is increased, the expansion liquid in the corresponding expansion bladder 410 in the first direction expands to deform the expansion bladder 410, and presses the first direction of the adjacent hose 210 along with the increase of the volume of the expansion bladder 410, so as to push the hose 210 to move away from the first direction, thereby realize keeping away from the function of first direction one side turn, other direction principles are the same.

The direction and the size of the pressure applied to the probe 300 in the patient body are sensed by the piezoresistor 330, the driving assembly 400 receives the change of the piezoresistor 330 so as to respond, the driving hose 210 rotates around the adjacent hose 210, so that the whole catheter 200 is bent, the whole process does not need program editing, the probe 300 is inserted into the human body, the catheter 200 is automatically bent correspondingly along with the change of the path route of the probe 300, the structure is relatively simple, and the cost is reduced.

The above-described embodiments of the present invention should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention. Any other corresponding changes and modifications made according to the technical idea of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the claims of the present invention.

Claims

1. An endoscope capable of automatically turning is characterized by comprising a measuring instrument body, a guide pipe, a probe and a plurality of driving components, wherein the measuring end of the measuring instrument body sequentially penetrates through the guide pipe and the probe, one end of the guide pipe is connected with the measuring instrument body, and the other end of the guide pipe is connected with the probe;

the guide pipe comprises a plurality of sections of hoses and a plurality of rotating connecting pieces, the measuring end of the measuring instrument body sequentially penetrates through the plurality of sections of hoses, two adjacent hoses are rotatably connected through the rotating connecting pieces, and an included angle is formed between the rotating directions of the two adjacent rotating connecting pieces;

the probe comprises a probe shell, a spherical sleeve and a plurality of piezoresistors, one end of the probe shell is connected with the conduit, the other end of the probe shell is rotatably connected with the spherical sleeve and is a plurality of the piezoresistors are arranged uniformly in the circumferential direction of the probe shell, one end of each piezoresistor is arranged at one end of the probe shell, which is close to the spherical sleeve, and the other end of each piezoresistor is abutted against the spherical sleeve.

The driving assemblies correspond to the rotating connecting pieces one by one, each hose is provided with one driving assembly, the driving end of each driving assembly drives the hose to rotate around the adjacent hose, and the driving assemblies are electrically connected with the piezoresistors.

2. The endoscope capable of automatically turning around according to claim 1, wherein each of the rotating connectors comprises a first connecting block, a second connecting block and two rotating shafts, wherein the opposite sides of the first connecting block and the second connecting block are respectively connected with two adjacent hoses, the two rotating shafts are coaxially arranged, and the opposite ends of the two rotating shafts sequentially penetrate through the first connecting block and the second connecting block.

3. An automatic turning endoscope according to claim 1 and wherein said probe housing comprises a barrel and a spherical barrel, one end of said barrel being connected to said rotational connection and the other end of said barrel being connected to said spherical barrel, said spherical barrel having a spherical outer wall, said spherical sleeve being fitted over said spherical barrel, said spherical sleeve sliding around said spherical barrel.

4. An automatic turning endoscope according to claim 1 and wherein said spherical sleeve is a transparent lens.

5. An automatic turning endoscope according to claim 1, wherein each of said driving units comprises two inflatable bladders and heating members corresponding to the inflatable bladders, said two inflatable bladders are symmetrically arranged about a central axis of said flexible tube, one end of said inflatable bladder is connected to a recess formed in one of said flexible tubes, and an expansion direction of said inflatable bladder is directed in a direction of rotation of the adjacent flexible tube, said heating members are mounted on said flexible tubes, and heating ends of said heating members are adjacent to the corresponding inflatable bladders.

6. An automatic turning endoscope according to claim 5 and wherein said heating elements are heating resistors and two heating elements in the same drive assembly are in one-to-one correspondence with two said piezoresistors disposed opposite one another.

7. An automated corner endoscope according to claim 1, wherein said piezoresistors are four in number.

8. An automatic turning endoscope according to claim 1 and wherein each said piezoresistor is coated with an insulating layer.