Locomotion characteristics of soft mobile robot platform for upper gastrointestinal (UGI) fluoroscopic examination

This paper describes the development of soft mobile robot platform and its locomotion characteristics to be used in fluoroscopy examination. In fluoroscopy inspection, commercially available compression paddle and/ or folded towel are frequently used by radiologist to compress patient s abdomen in order to detect small lesion such as ulcer and polyps, as an early detection for stomach cancer. The intervention of radiologist to position the compression paddle and/ or folded towel at specific different area around stomach leads to longer exposure time of radiation to both the radiologist and patient. We propose a soft mobile robot which can carry an inflatable pillow to remotely travel to the specific area replacing human interference, by means of omnidirectional locomotion capability to reduce time for aligning and steering itself, as commonly possessed by mobile robot, before initiating locomotion to the target area. The robot is made from silicone rubber while the pillow is from resin films and cloth cover, in order to obtain radiolucent characteristic that provides good X-ray image. It is pneumatically operated, integrated with desktop computer through control valves and electronics interface. Experiment results show the omnidirectional mobility of the robot and locomotion characteristics in terms of speed, traction force, and maximum capacity the robot can carry. With flexible mobility and quantified locomotion characteristics, the robot has potential to replace the role of radiologist and minimize radiation exposure to the patient.