Material Handling System for Robotic Natural Orifice Surgery

In Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES), in vivo robots can be utilized to perform surgical procedures within the peritoneal cavity. A NOTES approach has no external incisions, which decreases overall recovery time and reduces the risk of infection. Fully inserting in vivo robots into the peritoneal cavity eliminates the triangulation and multitasking limitations associated with more traditional endoscope-based NOTES approaches. One major limitation is that once inserted, the in vivo robots are isolated within the abdomen and cannot send or receive materials to the outside world. A steerable material handling system is being developed to bridge this deficiency. This paper presents the design rationale, methodology, and parameters associated with the system.