JP2001356279A - Posture controller and control method for camera cable - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To direct the front end of a camera cable for an endoscope having flexibility to arbitrary directions by exactly and easily controlling the posture of this cable. SOLUTION: At least three articulated drive bodies 11 are mounted along the longitudinal direction of the camera cable 7 in the state of arraying these bodies at equal intervals in contact with the outer periphery of the camera able 7 in its circumferential direction. The articulated drive bodies 11 are constituted by connecting plural expansion and contraction bodies 12 consisting of flexible cylindrical bodies by means of connectors 13 consisting of pipe joints. The camera cable 7 bends to the side opposite to the side of the extended expansion and contraction bodies 12 when the respective expansion and contraction bodies 12 are extended by supplying pressurization gas from a pressure regulator 17 to at least one articulated drive bodies 11.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for controlling the attitude of a flexible camera cable for an endoscope and a method of operating the attitude of the camera cable using the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An endoscope (fiberscope) is widely used for remotely observing a place that cannot be directly observed. For example, an endoscope such as a horizontal tank of an insulated gas (GIS) power device is used. For observation, an industrial endoscope is used. FIG. 4 is a front view of an insulating gas filled (GIS) power device, and FIG. 5 is a side view thereof. A tank 1 in which equipment is accommodated is supported by support legs 2 and a gas supply hole 3 is provided on a side portion thereof. The hole 3 is closed by a closing plate during operation of the power equipment, but is removed by removing the closing plate at the time of inspection, and the internal insulating gas is discharged from the hole 3.
As described above, the industrial endoscope 4 can be inserted into the hole 3 to observe the internal device 5.

As shown in FIG. 6, an endoscope 4 is composed of a camera body 6 and a camera cable 7 extending therefrom. The camera cable 7 is made of soft plastic or the like around a number of aligned optical fibers (optical fibers). Protected by a flexible covering layer, which is flexible and can be freely bent. A part of the optical fiber bundle is connected to the lens part of the camera body 6 to transmit an optical image incident from the tip part 7a to the lens part, and the other part receives light from a light source provided on the camera body 6 to the tip part 7a.
It is designed to irradiate more.

[0004]

As described above, the camera cable 7 has a feature of flexibility, but has a problem that it is difficult to use because of the feature. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, when the camera cable 7 is inserted from the hole 3 of the tank 1 to observe the inside, the camera cable 7 hangs down by gravity due to its flexibility as shown in FIG. 7
In many cases, the region to be observed cannot be captured by a. Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a camera cable attitude operation apparatus and a camera cable attitude operation method using the apparatus.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A camera cable attitude manipulating device according to the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems operates the attitude of a flexible endoscope camera cable. This device comprises at least three elongated articulated drives which are arranged at equal intervals in the circumferential direction in contact with the outer periphery of the camera cable and are mounted along the longitudinal direction. Each articulated driver has a plurality of telescopic members and a plurality of connectors for connecting the members to each other, and the portions of the connectors are attached to a camera cable. Then, by selectively driving at least three articulated driving bodies attached to the camera cable and extending the elastic body, the camera cable is bent to the opposite side to the extended elastic body. Is what you do.

In the above attitude control device, the expandable body is constituted by a flexible cylinder which can be expanded and contracted by adjusting the pressure of a fluid supplied from the outside, and the connecting body is constituted by a pipe joint for connecting the cylindrical bodies in a communicating state. can do. Further, a posture operation method of the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems is a method of operating the posture of a flexible endoscope camera cable using the above posture operation device. And this operation method,
At least three multi-joint drivers are attached along the longitudinal direction in a state of being arranged at equal intervals in the circumferential direction in contact with the outer periphery of the camera cable, and selectively driving at least one multi-joint driver to expand and contract the extension. And thereby the camera cable is bent to the opposite side to the elongated telescopic body.

[0007]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view showing a state in which the attitude control device of the present invention is attached to a camera cable, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is a front view showing a state in which the attitude control device of the present invention is attached to a camera cable and the attitude of the camera cable is being operated. 1 and 2, at least three elongated multi-joint driving bodies 11 are arranged at regular intervals (90-degree intervals) in the circumferential direction in contact with the outer periphery of the camera cable 7 and attached along the longitudinal direction. It has. Each articulated driving body 11 is plural (3 in this example).
), And a plurality of (two in this example) connectors 13 that connect them in series with each other, and connect the portions of the connectors 13 to the camera cable 7 with a common fastener 14 such as a band. By fastening, four articulated driving bodies 11
Are attached at equal intervals in parallel to the outer periphery of the camera cable 7 at a portion to be operated collectively. The number of the multi-joint driving bodies 11 may be three or more.

As shown in FIG. 2, the camera cable 7 is composed of a number of optical fibers 7b and a flexible covering layer 8 made of a soft plastic or the like covering the periphery thereof. Further, in order to avoid complication in the drawing, FIG. 1 shows only two articulated driving bodies 11 on a diagonal line, and FIG. 3 shows only two adjacent articulated driving bodies 11. Elastic body 1
Reference numeral 2 denotes a flexible tubular body such as a rubber tube which can extend in the longitudinal direction in proportion to the pressure by introducing a pressurized fluid into the inside, and the connecting body 13 is a pipe joint such as a hard plastic pipe or a metal pipe. Consists of Then, the flexible cylinder and the pipe joint are connected to each other in a communicating state. Although the flexible cylinder expands slightly in the radial direction due to the introduction of the pressurized fluid, there is no particular problem in the operation of the device.

Each articulated driving body 11 needs to be held at a predetermined position on the camera cable 7. Therefore, one end of each articulated driving body 11 is fixed to the outer peripheral surface of the camera cable 7 with a fastener 15 such as a band. Each articulated driving body 11
The end of the elastic body 12 forming the front end is closed, and the end of the elastic body 12 forming the rear end is connected to a flexible tube 16 such as a thin hose. As shown in FIG. 3, the camera cable 7 is connected to the camera body 6, and the flexible tubes 16 extending along the camera cable 7 are each connected to a pressure adjusting device 17. A pressurized gas is supplied to each pressure adjusting device 17 from a common pressurized fluid generating device 18, and the pressurized fluid is reduced to a set pressure and discharged to the flexible tube 16. An opening / closing valve (not shown) is provided at the outlet side of each pressure adjusting device 17 so that the supply of the pressurized fluid to the multi-joint driving body 11 not used can be stopped.

As the pressurized fluid, pressurized air is usually used because of its simplicity. However, when the object to be observed is in a liquid such as water or oil, a pressurized liquid suitable for them can be used. Alternatively, the pressurized fluid may be selectively supplied from the common pressure adjusting device 17 to each of the multi-joint driving bodies 11 through four on-off valves. Further, the opening / closing valve may be an automatic opening / closing valve such as a solenoid valve or an automatic adjusting valve such as an electric valve or an air adjusting valve, and the opening / closing operation or the opening degree may be adjusted by a remote controller. When the automatic adjustment valve is used, the pressure of the pressurized fluid to each of the multi-joint driving bodies 11 can be adjusted to different values even if the pressure adjustment device 17 is shared.

Next, a method of operating the attitude of the camera cable using the attitude operating device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the camera cable 7 to which the attitude control device of the present invention is attached is inserted into the tank 1 through the hole 3. Next, the pressurized fluid adjusted by the pressure adjusting device 17 is supplied to the selected multi-joint driving body 11. Then, each telescopic body 12 of the multi-joint drive body 11 to which the pressurized fluid is supplied expands in proportion to the pressure, whereby the camera cable 7 is bent to the opposite side to the expanded telescopic body 12. When the pressurized fluid is supplied to two adjacent articulated driving bodies 11, the telescopic bodies 12 of the two articulated driving bodies 11 cooperate to connect the camera cable 7 to the articulated driving bodies 11 (the telescopic bodies 1).
It can be bent to the opposite side of 2). Thus 2
When the multiple articulated driving bodies 11 are used at the same time, the operating force on the camera cable 7 can be increased.

For example, in FIG. 2, when a pressurized fluid is supplied to the multi-joint driving body 11 at the upper right of the drawing, the camera cable 7 bends to the lower left of the drawing (the side opposite to the elongated telescopic body 12).
Also, two articulated driving bodies 11 at the upper right and lower right of the drawing
When the pressurized fluid is simultaneously supplied to the camera cable 7, the camera cable 7 bends in the left (horizontal) direction in the drawing. Note that FIG.
The state where the pressurized fluid is simultaneously supplied to the multi-joint drive body 11 is shown. As described above, by selecting at least three multi-joint driving bodies 11 either one or two adjacent ones, and supplying the pressurized fluid at the adjusted pressure,
The distal end portion 7a of the camera cable 7 can be oriented in any desired direction in any direction of 360 degrees.

[0013]

As described above, the camera cable attitude manipulating device of the present invention is arranged at equal intervals in the circumferential direction in contact with the outer periphery of the camera cable and has at least three elongated multi-joint drives attached along the longitudinal direction. Body, each articulated driving body has a plurality of telescopic bodies and a plurality of connecting bodies for connecting them to each other, and the parts of these connecting bodies are configured to be attached to the camera cable, and the state of being attached to the camera cable is provided. The camera cable is bent to the side opposite to the elongated telescopic body by selectively driving the multi-joint driving body to extend the telescopic body. Therefore, the posture of the distal end portion of the camera cable can be operated in a desired direction with high accuracy, so that a portion that cannot be observed from the outside can be easily and quickly observed. Further, the attitude control device of the present invention can be easily attached to a camera cable of a commercially available endoscope. In the above attitude control device, the expandable body may be configured by a flexible cylinder that can expand and contract by adjusting the pressure of a fluid supplied from the outside, and the connecting body may be configured by a pipe joint that connects the cylindrical bodies in a communicating state. it can. By doing so, the apparatus can be made compact, and accurate and fine attitude control can be performed based on excellent operability.

[0014] Further, according to the posture operation method of the present invention for controlling the posture of a flexible endoscope camera cable using the above posture operation device, at least three articulated driving bodies are connected to the outer periphery of the camera cable. Along the longitudinal direction in a state of being arranged at equal intervals in the circumferential direction in contact with the, selectively driving at least one multi-joint drive body to extend its expandable portion,
Thereby, the camera cable is bent to the opposite side to the elongated telescopic body. Therefore, the posture of the distal end portion of the camera cable can be controlled in a desired direction with high accuracy, so that a portion that cannot be observed from the outside can be easily and quickly observed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing a state in which a posture control device of the present invention is attached to a camera cable.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line CC of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing a state in which the attitude control device of the present invention is attached to a camera cable and the attitude of the camera cable is being operated.

FIG. 4 is a front view of an insulating gas filled (GIS) power device.

FIG. 5 is a side view of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which a camera cable of the endoscope is inserted into a tank of the power device shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. 6;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Tank 2 Support leg 3 Hole 4 Endoscope 5 Equipment 6 Camera body 7 Camera cable 7a Tip 7b Optical fiber 8 Coating layer 10 Attitude operating device 11 Multi-joint drive body 12 Telescopic body 13 Linked body 14 Fastener 15 Fastener 16 Flexible tube 17 Pressure regulator 18 Pressurized fluid generator

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2H040 AA02 AA03 BA14 BA21 CA11 CA27 DA03 DA14 DA15 DA21 DA41 GA01 3F060 AA10 GA16 GB01 HA03 HA05 HA24 HA37 4C061 AA29 BB02 CC07 DD03 FF24 FF32 FF50 HH02 HH13 HH42 HH47 H60

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An apparatus for controlling the posture of a flexible camera cable for an endoscope, wherein the camera cable is arranged at regular intervals in the circumferential direction in contact with the outer periphery of the camera cable 7, and is attached along the longitudinal direction. It has three elongated articulated driving bodies 11, each articulated driving body 11 has a plurality of telescopic bodies 12 and a plurality of connecting bodies 13 for connecting them together. The multi-joint driving body 11 attached to the camera cable 7 is selectively driven to extend the telescopic body 12, so that the telescopic body 12 with the camera cable 7 expanded
A camera cable attitude manipulating device characterized by being bent to the opposite side of the camera cable. 2. The expansion / contraction body 12 is made of a flexible cylinder which expands and contracts by adjusting the pressure of a fluid supplied from the outside, and the connecting body 13 is a pipe joint which connects the cylinders in a communicating state. 2. The attitude control device for a camera cable according to claim 1. 3. A method for operating a posture of a flexible camera cable for an endoscope, wherein at least three multi-joint drives are performed using the posture operation device according to claim 1 or 2. The body 11 is attached along the longitudinal direction with the body 11 in contact with the outer periphery of the camera cable 7 and arranged at equal intervals in the circumferential direction, and selectively drives at least one multi-joint driving body 11 to extend the elastic portion 12 thereof. A method of operating the posture of the camera cable, wherein the camera cable 7 is bent to the side opposite to the elongated body 12 thereby.