Worming a Way Into ‘Pleasurable’ Endoscopy
Endoscopy can be deeply uncomfortable. Improving matters, BIOLOCH researchers are attempting to apply the motion techniques used by lower animal forms to endoscopy technology to develop a prototype capable of ‘pulling’ itself into a patient’s internals, rather than being pushed as it is now.
(PRWEB) December 10, 2004 -- Endoscopy can be deeply uncomfortable. Improving
matters, BIOLOCH researchers are attempting to apply the motion techniques used
by lower animal forms to endoscopy technology to develop a prototype capable of
‘pulling’ itself into a patient’s internals, rather than being pushed as it is
now.
BIOLOCH is using the ragworm or paddleworm as their model for an
endoscope-type prototype instrument.
“The basic concept is to develop a
replacement for the current colonic endoscope, which is quite large and stiff,
and has to be pushed inside a patient,” says Paolo Dario, from the Scuola
Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa (Italy). “If you can pull a device rather than push
it, you can reduce the bending forces and so lessen the chance of damage to a
patient’s internal organs. We looked to nature for a model and chose the
paddleworm, because it is capable of ‘swimming’ with ease through relatively
soft, unstructured environments.”
BIOLOCH’s first studied the locomotion
mechanisms used by these animals, which move in wet environments containing
large amounts of solid and semi-solid material. The project aims to understand
the motion systems used by such lower animal forms, and to design and fabricate
mini- and micro-machines inspired by such biological systems. Such bio-inspired
machines have potential applications in many fields where direct human
intervention is difficult or dangerous, and remote inspection is required.
The project’s initial prototype consists of a simple worm with a
flexible central spine and paddles sticking out either side along the worm’s
body. Researchers are now working on a more advanced prototype in which the
paddles themselves are capable of moving. To this end the team has had to
recruit a biologist to examine how the worms move, and explain these movements
to the engineers so that they can work out how to actuate and control the
mechanical worm.
Julian Vincent from the University of Bath (UK)
explains that paddleworms have a very different way of moving compared to
earthworms. The paddleworm’s sine wave locomotion technique runs forward along
the body rather than backwards as is the case with the earthworm.
“If
you take a wriggly worm with a smooth body, the sine wave moves backwards as the
worm moves forwards. But if you put paddles on which stick out to the side of
the body, the physics of thrust production changes and the sine wave has to move
forwards. The advantage from our point of view is that the paddle worm has a
much greater variety of styles of moving, since it can remain straight and just
move the paddles, wriggle and keep the paddles still, or wriggle and move the
paddles as well. This gives more versatility in speed and general control. The
paddle worm can also build burrows very rapidly. So the chances are that a
robotic motor based on this design will be more versatile and faster than most
others.’
At the moment the prototypes are rather slow. Current medical
procedure for endoscopies allows around only 10 minutes to reach the end of the
colon. Says Dario, “Our worm takes about thirty minutes to cover a comparable
distance, so it needs to be speeded up by a factor of ten to fifty. However if
we can get the paddles to move as well as the central spine, this should double
the energy delivered during the power stroke, so we aim to improve the speed by
a factor of ten.”
An early prototype of the BIOLOCH worm is already on
display at the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. However, the BIOLOCH
team intend to have the second, more advanced prototype, which will have a
smaller diameter and be more flexible, ready and working by mid-2005.
“Ultimately”, says Vincent, “our idea is to turn the current ordeal of the
colonic endoscopy procedure into something akin to a pleasurable experience!”
Please mention IST Results as the source of this story and, if
publishing online, please hyperlink to: http://istresults.cordis.lu/
IST Results contact: Tara
Morris, Tel: +32-2-2861985, tmorris @ gopa-cartermill.com
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/12/prweb186949.htm