Visual Servo Control of a Novel Magnetic Actuated Endoscope for Uniportal Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery

This letter presents the first case of implementing visual servo control on a magnetic anchored endoscope. The novel magnetic actuated endoscope is designed for uniportal video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). It is compact and has a workspace close to the chest wall, which is suitable for operation in constrained space. The visual servo control allows the magnetic endoscope to automatically track a surgical instrument. In surgery, this can prevent human errors and muscle fatigues. The workflow is as follows: the kinematic model and control method are derived first. The control method is then verified in simulation. Experiments are conducted to validate the control method and prove feasibility of the system. Overall, contributions of this letter include the following. First, the development of a magnetic anchored and actuated endoscope capable of instrument tracking, which can improve uniportal VATS. Second, proving the feasibility of visual servo control in magnetic anchored endoscope, which can expand to development of other magnetic systems and surgical robots.