Locomotion, Navigation and Safety Methodologies for Active Wireless Capsule Endoscopy and Flexible Endoscopy

This research presents solutions to enable new functionalities for WCEs, including locomotion, navigation and safety for the next generation of WCE. An open loop locomotion mechanism to control the mobility of a WCE within the body using a dynamic electromagnetic field (DEF) has been implemented and tested. The novel navigation system in this research has the ability to monitor the forces between the medical inspection device -whether capsule or wired endoscopy- and the ambient environment during the locomotion which will gradually enhance the safety. The system also uses the obtained data to localize and track the endoscope in three-dimensional space.