CN220557977U - Colon endoscope robot based on crawler-type driving structure - Google Patents

Abstract

The application belongs to the technical field of endoscopes, and particularly provides a colon endoscope robot based on a crawler-type driving structure, which comprises a shell, an optical lens unit, a plurality of crawler structures and at least two driving pieces, wherein the optical lens unit is arranged on the shell; the crawler belt structure is movably connected with the shell, is positioned at the edge of the shell and is obliquely arranged with the surface of the shell; the driving piece is arranged in the shell and is in transmission connection with the crawler belt structure. This application can be maximize with track structure laminating to the intestines wall on, increased track structure and the area of contact of intestines wall, further ensured the motion validity of endoscope robot under intestinal viscose ring border. At least two driving parts are arranged, and the operation of other driving parts cannot be influenced under the condition that one driving part fails, so that the endoscope robot has better applicability in wet, multi-mucus and multi-grease intestinal environments.

Description

Colon endoscope robot based on crawler-type driving structure

Technical Field

The application belongs to the technical field of endoscopes, and more specifically relates to a colon endoscope robot based on a crawler-type driving structure.

Background

The human large intestine consists of the cecum, appendix, colon and rectum. The colon is responsible for absorption, secretion and assistance in defecation. It absorbs mainly water and sodium, but also small amounts of potassium, chlorine, urea, glucose and some drugs. With the continuous development of social economy, the increasingly accumulated pressure and bad lifestyle of people lead to an increasing incidence of digestive tract diseases. According to global cancer data report issued by world health organization, in 2020, the colon cancer is the third largest cancer after lung cancer and prostate cancer with new cases of approximately 115 ten thousand and 6% of the occupation ratios. According to the recent findings of lancet, the characteristics of cancer patients are becoming younger and younger, and the number of colon cancers diagnosed in the young population is also increasing. Clinical experience has shown that colorectal cancer is only a few early polyps. If colorectal cancer can be diagnosed and treated in time, the colorectal cancer diagnosis and treatment method is greatly beneficial to mankind.

The medical tube endoscope is one of the earliest, most important and most widely applied tools for clinically diagnosing digestive tract diseases at present, but because the tube endoscope adopts an invasive examination mode, pain and wound are often brought to a patient, even bleeding, infection and other risks are caused when the tube endoscope is used, and psychological rejection of the patient is often accompanied. Due to the lack of a driving unit, the capsule endoscope can only detect along with the peristaltic motion of the gastrointestinal tract, and risks of missed detection and retention in the body exist. The magnetic control capsule endoscope is configured to control the posture of the capsule endoscope by using an external magnetic field through the built-in permanent magnet, and thus, a large and expensive magnetic control device is required. The research of the endoscope robot can relieve the pain of patients and improve the inspection quality and efficiency. The system technology spans multiple fields of photoelectron, electrochemical sensing, image processing, wireless communication, precise device packaging and the like, and is high-efficiency complementary with the traditional gastroscope. The endoscope robot belongs to a disposable product, has no cross infection risk, no pain, no injury, no anesthesia and no psychological disorder, and can complete the health screening of digestive tract diseases in an all-round dead angle-free way, so the endoscope robot is praised by the medical community as the revolution and direction of the development of the endoscope in the 21 st century.

Over the past few decades, endoscopy has evolved from passively moving pill-sized image capsules to active capsule endoscopic robots. Various movement schemes, including legged, worm, wheeled, magnetically controlled, etc., have been attempted, both wireless and streamer, but each design has its own limitations. Leg designs tend to be complex in bradykinesia and have the potential to damage the intestinal environment; worm-type designs tend to be safer, but also move slowly and lack multiple degrees of freedom to diagnose the entire lumen; the wheel type design can have larger movement speed, but the existing design also has the problems of oversized size and easy failure of movement; the magnetic control design can ensure the safety and controllability of the capsule, but requires huge and expensive external equipment for magnetic field support. Furthermore, most prototype machines have been designed to lack the tools or functions necessary to perform traditional colonoscopy, as well as sensory feedback that is not globally localized in the body. The sensing capability of the existing developed endoscope robots is basically limited to visual information, and biochemical information which is more direct and fundamental to disease diagnosis is often ignored. Although the research of the robot capsule endoscope has advanced greatly, no endoscope robot is commercially available at present.

Disclosure of Invention

An object of the embodiment of the application is to provide a colon endoscope robot based on crawler-type driving structure to solve the technical problem that the endoscope robot that exists among the prior art is complicated, slow in movement, flexibility is poor.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the technical scheme adopted in the application is as follows: the colon endoscope robot based on the crawler-type driving structure comprises a shell, an optical lens unit, a plurality of crawler-type structures and at least two driving pieces, wherein the optical lens unit is arranged on the shell; the crawler belt structure is movably connected with the shell, is positioned at the edge of the shell and is obliquely arranged with the surface of the shell; the driving piece is arranged in the shell and is in transmission connection with the crawler belt structure.

Optionally, the track structure comprises a driving wheel, a driven wheel and a track; the driving wheel is in transmission connection with the driving piece and is in rotary connection with the shell; the driven wheel is rotationally connected with the shell; the track is tensioned between the driving wheel and the driven wheel.

Optionally, the track surface is provided with a plurality of raised grain structures.

Optionally, the material of the crawler belt is polydimethylsiloxane.

Optionally, the colonoscope robot further comprises a transmission assembly, and the output end of the driving piece is provided with a worm; the input end of the transmission assembly is in transmission connection with the worm, and the output end of the transmission assembly is connected with the driving wheel.

Optionally, the transmission assembly includes a worm gear, a driving gear, and a driven gear; the worm wheel is meshed with the worm; the driving gear is connected with the worm gear and is coaxially arranged with the worm gear; the driven gear is connected with the driving wheel and is coaxially arranged with the driving wheel; the driven gear is meshed with the driving gear.

Optionally, the number of the transmission assemblies corresponds to the number of the crawler belt structures one by one; one driving piece is in transmission connection with two transmission assemblies.

Optionally, the housing comprises a first housing and a second housing, the first housing and the second housing being connected; the first housing and the second housing are respectively internally provided with one driving piece.

Optionally, the number of the optical lens units is at least two.

Optionally, the colonoscopy robot further comprises three electrodes attached to a surface of the housing.

The application provides a colon endoscope robot based on crawler-type drive structure's beneficial effect lies in:

(1) Compared with the prior art, in this application, track structure is located the edge department of casing, and sets up with the slope of casing surface, can be maximize with track structure laminating to the intestines wall on, increased track structure and intestinal wall's area of contact, further ensured the motion validity of endoscope robot under intestinal viscose ring border.

(2) Compared with the prior art, in this application, be equipped with two driving pieces and a plurality of track structures at least for endoscope robot possesses weak coupling nature, can not influence other driving piece work under the condition that one of them driving piece became invalid promptly, has guaranteed that at least a set of track structure still can normally work, makes endoscope robot possess better suitability in moist, many mucus, many greasy intestinal environment.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings that are required for the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly described below, it being obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and that other drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a track-based drive configuration of a colonoscope robot according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional structural view of a tracked drive-based colonoscope robot provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional perspective view of a tracked drive-based colonoscope robot according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of the cooperation of a transmission assembly and a driving member in a tracked drive-based colonoscope robot according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is a second schematic diagram of the cooperation of the transmission assembly and the driving member in the colonoscope robot based on the crawler-type driving structure according to the embodiment of the present application.

Wherein, each reference sign in the figure:

101-a first housing; 111-a first through hole; 112-a second through hole; 113-a third through hole; 114-a first mounting slot; 115-a second mounting groove; 102-a second housing;

200-an optical lens unit;

301-a driving wheel; 302-driven wheel; 303-tracks;

400-driving member;

500-worm;

601-worm gear; 602-a drive gear; 603-driven gear.

Detailed Description

In order to make the technical problems, technical schemes and beneficial effects to be solved by the present application more clear, the present application is further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the present application.

It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "mounted" or "disposed" on another element, it can be directly on the other element or be indirectly on the other element. When an element is referred to as being "connected to" another element, it can be directly connected to the other element or be indirectly connected to the other element.

It is to be understood that the terms "length," "width," "upper," "lower," "front," "rear," "left," "right," "vertical," "horizontal," "top," "bottom," "inner," "outer," and the like indicate or are based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, merely to facilitate description of the present application and simplify description, and do not indicate or imply that the devices or elements referred to must have a particular orientation, be configured and operated in a particular orientation, and therefore should not be construed as limiting the present application.

Furthermore, the terms "first," "second," and the like, are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying a relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defining "a first" or "a second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more such feature. In the description of the present application, the meaning of "a plurality" is two or more, unless explicitly defined otherwise.

Referring to fig. 1 to 5 together, a description will now be given of a track-type driving structure-based colonoscope robot according to an embodiment of the present application. The colon endoscope robot based on the crawler type driving structure comprises a shell, an optical lens unit 200, a plurality of crawler type structures and at least two driving pieces 400, wherein the optical lens unit 200 is arranged on the shell, and the optical lens unit 200 is used for autonomous navigation and global positioning; the crawler belt structure is movably connected with the shell, is positioned at the edge of the shell and is obliquely arranged with the surface of the shell; the driving member 400 is disposed within the housing and is in driving engagement with the track structure.

Compared with the prior art, in the embodiment of the application, the track structure is located at the edge of the shell and is obliquely arranged on the surface of the shell, so that the track structure can be attached to the intestinal wall to the greatest extent, the contact area between the track structure and the intestinal wall is increased, and the movement effectiveness of the endoscope robot in the intestinal adhesive ring is further ensured. At least two driving pieces 400 and a plurality of crawler structures are arranged, so that the endoscope robot has weak coupling, namely, under the condition that one driving piece 400 fails, the operation of other driving pieces 400 is not influenced, at least one group of crawler structures can still normally operate, and the endoscope robot has better applicability in wet, multi-mucus and multi-grease intestinal environments.

In this embodiment, the casing is disposable, avoids taking place cross infection when detecting, and the casing can be with track structure detachable connection (like joint) to the change of casing of being convenient for.

In one embodiment of the present application, referring to fig. 1, 3 and 4 together, the track structure includes a driving wheel 301, a driven wheel 302 and a track 303; the driving wheel 301 is in transmission connection with the driving piece 400 and is in rotary connection with the shell; driven wheel 302 is rotatably coupled to the housing; the track 303 is tensioned between the driving wheel 301 and the driven wheel 302.

In this embodiment, by providing the driven wheel 302, the crawler 303 can be placed in a tensioned state, and the crawler 303 is ensured to be in effective contact with the intestinal wall. The number of driven wheels 302 may be set plural, for example: the present embodiment provides two driven wheels 302.

In one embodiment of the present application, the surface of track 303 is provided with a plurality of raised grain structures (not shown).

In this embodiment, through setting up bellied granule structure on track 303 surface, the endoscope robot can increase the frictional force between track 303 and the intestinal wall when moving, avoids appearing skidding the phenomenon, has improved the validity of motion.

In one embodiment of the present application, the material of track 303 is polydimethylsiloxane.

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is one of organosilicon, and has the characteristics of low cost, simple use, good adhesion with silicon chips, good chemical inertness and the like. More importantly, the polydimethylsiloxane material has good biocompatibility and does not generate chemical harm to intestinal tracts.

In one embodiment of the present application, referring to fig. 4 and 5, the colonoscope robot further includes a transmission assembly, and the output end of the driving member 400 is provided with a worm 500; the input end of the transmission assembly is in transmission connection with the worm 500, and the output end of the transmission assembly is connected with the driving wheel 301.

Specifically, the driving member 400 may employ a motor, an output shaft of which penetrates the worm 500 and is connected to the housing through a bearing. The bearing can be a thrust ball bearing.

In one embodiment of the present application, referring to fig. 4 and 5 together, the transmission assembly includes a worm gear 601, a driving gear 602, and a driven gear 603; the worm wheel 601 is engaged with the worm 500; the driving gear 602 is connected with the worm gear 601 and is coaxially arranged with the worm gear 601; the driven gear 603 is connected with the driving wheel 301 and is coaxially arranged with the driving wheel 301; the driven gear 603 meshes with the driving gear 602.

In this embodiment, the driving member 400 rotates to drive the worm 500 to rotate; the worm 500 is meshed with the worm gear 601 to drive the worm gear 601 to rotate; the worm gear 601 is coaxially disposed with the driving gear 602, and thus, the driving gear 602 will rotate together with the worm gear 601; the driving gear 602 is meshed with the driven gear 603, so that the driven gear 603 is driven to rotate, and the driven gear 603 and the driving wheel 301 are coaxially arranged, so that the driving wheel 301 rotates along with the driven gear 603, and the crawler belt structure moves.

In one embodiment of the present application, the number of drive assemblies corresponds one-to-one with the number of track structures; one drive 400 is in driving connection with two transmission assemblies.

Specifically, an output shaft of one driving member 400 is connected to a worm 500, and two worm gears 601 are engaged with one worm 500, so that two crawler belt structures can be driven by providing one driving member 400.

In one embodiment of the present application, referring to fig. 1 and 2 together, the housing includes a first housing 101 and a second housing 102, and the first housing 101 and the second housing 102 are connected; a driving member 400 is provided in each of the first housing 101 and the second housing 102.

Specifically, the first housing 101 and the second housing 102 have the same structure, and this embodiment is provided with two driving pieces 400, and the two driving pieces 400 are respectively provided in the first housing 101 and the second housing 102. The two driving pieces 400 are mutually independent and mutually noninterfere, the rotation function can be realized due to inconsistent rotation speeds of the two driving pieces 400, and the independent steering can be realized under the intestinal environment by matching with the optical lens unit 200, so that the problem of movement interference of the endoscope robot caused by stretchable intestinal tracts is solved. Clinically, after insertion of a colonoscope, the colonoscope tends to accumulate in the curved parts of the intestine (e.g. the sigmoid colon) due to the lack of a front drive source, and the colonoscope is forced to stretch after being pushed in due to the stretchability of the intestine. Besides pain, the problems of bleeding infection and the like can be caused, so that clinical examination of sigmoid colon requires medical staff to have higher proficiency, and the utility model is provided with two driving members 400 at the front end on the basis of towing cables, can automatically provide driving force, does not need rear-end propulsion of operators, and avoids the problems of intestinal tract overstocked bleeding and the like.

Taking the first housing 101 as an example, as shown in fig. 3, a first through hole 111, a second through hole 112, a first mounting groove 114 and a second mounting groove 115 are provided on the side surface of the first housing 101 matching with the second housing 102; the first through hole 111 is used for inserting bolts to connect the second housing 102, the second through hole 112 is used for installing the shaft of the worm gear 601, the first installation groove 114 is used for being matched with the installation driving piece 400, and the second installation groove 115 is used for being matched with the installation of the optical lens unit 200; the outer side surface of the first housing 101 is provided with a plurality of third through holes 113, and the third through holes 113 are used for mounting shafts of the driving wheel 301 and the driven wheel 302. The volume of the shell can be reduced to a greater extent by the above design.

In one embodiment of the present application, the number of optical lens units 200 is at least two.

In this embodiment, two optical lens units 200 are provided, as shown in fig. 1, the two optical lens units 200 can transmit images of the left and right parts at the same horizontal position, compared with a single optical lens, the image sensing range is increased, environmental depth information can be obtained through algorithm fusion calculation, autonomous navigation and global positioning of the endoscope robot are achieved, and further autonomous movement and feedback of the endoscope robot in the intestinal tract are achieved, so that operation of medical staff is simplified, equipment proficiency requirements are reduced, and global feedback of the position of a lesion part is facilitated.

It is understood that the two optical lens units 200 may form a binocular vision navigation apparatus, and the optical lens units 200 may be used as an image capturing element of the environment in the intestinal tract, and may transmit the image back to the PC end, so as to achieve the reading of the feedback signal. The addition of the optical lens unit 200 facilitates posture correction by the endoscope robot and transfer of image information in the intestinal tract.

In one embodiment of the present application, the colonoscopy robot further comprises three electrodes (not shown) attached to the surface of the housing.

In this embodiment, the three electrodes refer to a working electrode, a counter motor and a reference electrode, and by modifying different sensitive substances on the three electrodes, detection of the designated markers including temperature, PH value, glucose, lactic acid, nitric oxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and other metabolic substances can be realized, so as to achieve the purpose of in-situ detection of intestinal tract drug metabolism and flora conditions, and further realize diagnosis of diseases such as crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome and the like. The biochemical information and the image information are combined in an auxiliary way, so that the defect of single sensing capability of the conventional endoscope is overcome.

The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the present application is not intended to be limiting, but is intended to cover any and all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and principles of the present application.

Claims (10)

1. A track-based drive structure for a colonoscope robot, comprising:

a housing;

an optical lens unit disposed on the housing;

the crawler belt structures are movably connected with the shell, are positioned at edges of the shell and are obliquely arranged with the surface of the shell; and

the driving parts are arranged in the shell and are in transmission connection with the crawler belt structure.

2. The tracked drive based colonoscope robot according to claim 1, wherein said track structure comprises:

the driving wheel is in transmission connection with the driving piece and is in rotary connection with the shell;

the driven wheel is rotationally connected with the shell; and

the crawler belt is tensioned between the driving wheel and the driven wheel.

3. The tracked drive based colonoscope robot according to claim 2, wherein said track surface is provided with a plurality of raised grain structures.

4. A track-based driving structure colonoscope robot according to claim 3, wherein the track is of polydimethylsiloxane material.

5. The track-based drive structure of claim 2, wherein the colonoscope robot further comprises a transmission assembly, the output end of the drive member being provided with a worm; the input end of the transmission assembly is in transmission connection with the worm, and the output end of the transmission assembly is connected with the driving wheel.

6. The tracked drive based colonoscope robot according to claim 5, wherein said transmission assembly comprises:

a worm wheel engaged with the worm;

the driving gear is connected with the worm wheel and is coaxially arranged with the worm wheel; and

the driven gear is connected with the driving wheel and is coaxially arranged with the driving wheel; the driven gear is meshed with the driving gear.

7. The tracked drive based colonoscope robot according to claim 5, wherein the number of drive assemblies corresponds one-to-one with the number of track structures; one driving piece is in transmission connection with two transmission assemblies.

8. The tracked drive based colonoscope robot according to claim 1, wherein said housing comprises a first housing and a second housing, said first housing and second housing being connected; the first housing and the second housing are respectively internally provided with one driving piece.

9. The tracked drive based colonoscope robot according to claim 1, wherein said optical lens units are at least two in number.

10. The tracked drive based colonoscope robot according to any one of claims 1-9, further comprising three electrodes attached to a surface of said housing.