Modeling and Experimental Characterization of Propeller-driven Capsule Endoscope Robot for Gastrointestinal Minimally Invasive Diagnosis

Wireless capsule endoscopy robots are miniaturized robots that integrate camera, wireless communication, microcontroller, power supply, and other modules. In this paper, we study the modeling and experimental characterization of a propeller-driven capsule endoscopy robot (PCER). The profile of the propeller is challenging to design without detailed drawings because of the complex curved surfaces. The propeller design is achieved in the MIT open-source project OpenProp. The modeling of the propeller and the PCER shell are completed. We used the FLUENT fluid simulation toolkit to evaluate the hydrodynamic performance of the propeller and PCER shell. The thrust generated by the propeller is measured by experiment, and the resistance of PCER shell is measured by experiment following the fluid similarity law. The error between the simulation and the experiment results is within the allowable range, which proves that the hydrodynamic performance parameters of the micro-propeller and the PCER shell calculated by the simulation are reliable, and it provides a new method for the design and optimization of the PCER.