Robotics and Autonomous Systems 57 (2009) 712–722

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Robotics and Autonomous Systems

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/robot

Sensor-based guidance control of a continuum robot for a semi-autonomous

colonoscopy
G. Chen a,∗ , M.T. Pham b , T. Redarce b
a
Unilever R&D, Port Sunlight, UK
b
Laboratoire Ampere, UMR CNRS 5005, INSA Lyon, F-69621, France

article info a b s t r a c t

Article history: Due to their compliance and high dexterity, biologically-inspired continuum robots have attracted much
Received 27 September 2007 interest for applications such as medical surgery, urban search and rescue, de-mining etc. In this paper,
Received in revised form we will present an application to medical surgery-colonoscopy by designing a pneumatic-driven flexible
29 October 2008
robotic manipulator, called ColoBot. The focus of this paper lies in the sensor-based position control of
Accepted 4 November 2008
Available online 18 November 2008
the ColoBot for guiding the advancement in a tubular, compliant and slippery environment. The kinematic
model related the position of the distal end of the ColoBot to the actuator inputs which is firstly developed
Keywords:
and formulated to control the shape of the ColoBot through position control of the distal tip. To achieve
Sensor-based position control safe guidance, the ideal position of the tip should be in the central axis of the colon. A method based on
Continuum robot a circumscribed circle is proposed to approximate the central position in real-time based on three sensor
Soft actuator readings. This position will be used as reference position for the tip to adjust its shape in real time to avoid
Colonoscopy the contact with tube wall. This proposed approach can be extended to the control of continuum robots
Kinematics in the conditions of a dynamically confined space. The simulation results and experimental results with
a curved tube will be presented in order to validate the proposed control strategy.
© 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Robotics has increasingly become accepted in the past 20 years
as a viable solution to many applications in surgery, particularly in
the field of computer assisted surgery (CAS), Minimally Invasive
Surgery and Therapy (MIS and MIT) [1]. Among them, surgical
robotic instruments for MIS are assumed to be the most promising
and technically challenging, needing integrated design, real-time
sensing, actuation and control, power supply and some degree
of autonomy [2]. Colonoscopy is a typical MIT procedure for
observation, diagnostics and therapy of the lower gastrointestinal
tract including the colon, where the second frequent malignant
tumor is found in industrialized countries [3]. This procedure is
accomplished through the insertion of an endoscope (also called
the colonoscope) into the human colon. At present, however, the
existing colonoscopy procedure is very technically demanding for
doctors and tends to be unpopular with patients [2]. The main
reason lies in the characteristics of current colonoscopes, which are
∗ Corresponding address: Unilever R&D, Port sunlight, Quarry Road East, CH63
3JW Bebington, Wirral, UK. Tel.: +44 0 1516411446; fax: +44 0 1516411812.
E-mail addresses: gchenchine@yahoo.fr (G. Chen), minh-tu.pham@insa-lyon.fr
(M.T. Pham).
0921-8890/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.robot.2008.11.001
quite rigid and require the doctor to perform difficult manoeuvres
for long insertion with minimal damage of the colon wall [4,5].
Since the human colon is a tortuous ‘‘tube’’ with several sharp
bends, the insertion of the colonoscope requires the doctor to exert
forces and rotations at shaft outside of the patient, thus causing
discomfort to the patient. The complexity of the procedure for
doctors and the discomfort experienced by the patient of current
colonoscopies lead many researchers to choose the automated
colonoscopy method. In [6], the authors proposed the concept
of automated colonoscopy (also called robotic colonoscopy) from
two aspects: locomotion and steering of the distal end, which
are the two main actions during a colonoscopy. In order to
facilitate the operation of colonoscopy, some studies on the robotic
colonoscopy have been carried out from these two aspects. Most
current research on autonomous colonoscopies have been focused
on the self-propelled robots which utilize various locomotion
mechanisms [7–12]. Among them, inchworm-like locomotion
attracted much more attention [8,9]. However, most of the current
inchworm-based robotic systems [8–11] showed low efficiency of
locomotion for exploring the colon because of the structure of the
colon wall: slippery and different diameters at each section.
Another aspect work that could improve the performance of
current colonoscopies is to design an autonomous steering robot
for guidance inside the colon during the colonoscopy. Several
robotic colonoscopy systems are also comprised of a flexible
steering tip, but they did not focus on how to control this special
 G. Chen et al. / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 57 (2009) 712–722
robot to endow it with a capability for autonomous guidance
[10,13,11,14].
Our previous work [15] has been focused on a semi-autonomous
robotic colonoscopy based on a biologically-inspired robotic
manipulator-ColoBot. The ColoBot will replace the distal-end of
an actual colonoscope and provide for the ability of autonomous
steering inside the colon during the colonoscopy. This paper will
present our work on the steering control of the ColoBot for a semi-
autonomous robotic colonoscopy.
2. Related work on the control of continuum robot
Biologically-inspired continuum robots have attracted much
interest from robotics researchers during the last decades. These
kinds of systems are characterized by the fact that their mechanical
components do not have rigid links and discrete joints in contrast
with traditional industry robots [16]. The design of these robots
was inspired by the movements of natural animals such as
tongues, elephant trunks [17,18] and squid tentacles [19] etc.
The unusual compliance and redundant degrees of freedom of
these robots provide a strong potential to achieve delicate tasks
successfully even in cluttered and/or unstructured environments,
such as medical surgery [20], undersea operations [21], urban
search and rescue [22], de-mining and so on. Some robot
prototypes/products have been designed and fabricated for
different applications [23,24,21,25]. Although continuum robots
presented potential advantages for many applications, continuum
robots also present a novel problem on kinematics: how to
model the motion of continuum robots with respect to the
acutator inputs. Due to its lack of joints and rigid links, the
standard Denavit–Hartenberg (D–H) method can not be applied
to continuum robots directly. Hirose [26] developed kinematics
in 2-D for snake-like robots by introducing the serpenoid
curve which closely matches the shape of a snake. In contrast,
Chirikjian [27–29] developed kinematics of hyber-redundant
robots by using a continuous backbone curve. However, few
continuum robots match the proposed curve which limits the
application of this approach. Recently, researchers [30,31,20] have
developed a kinematic model and have even achieved real-time
implementatioin [32,33] for the kinematic control of continuum
robots. However, the desired motions for controlling continuum
robots are obtained through either predefined trajectory or tele-
operation by using a joystick in these control strategies.
The main contribution of this paper lies in automatic trajectory
generation for steering control of the ColoBot inside the colon. In
order for the ColoBot to achieve automatic guidance, contact-free
(minimal contact) trajectory for the distal end of ColoBot should
be planned in order to guide the colonoscope deep into the colon.
However, the tubular, compliant and slippery environment of the
human colon brings out two main constraints in generating a
trajectory. They are:
• The colon is a three-dimensional confined space and there is
very little knowledge and very little work on the model of the
colon for the purpose of motion planning
• the colonoscopy procedure is performed in a dynamic envi-
ronment due to the breathing activities of the patient and the
movement induced by the insertion of the colonoscope body.
Our proposed approach to these problems is the sensor-
based real-time generation of position reference for the tip in
2-dimensional plane and its shape control in 3-D space for the
semi-autonomous colonoscopy. Three optical distance sensors [34]
disposing at 120◦ are used to measure the position of the distal
end of the Colobot inside the colon (Fig. 2(a)). For more simplicity
but without loss of generality, it is assumed that a colon is a
cylindrical tube and its cross section is an ellipse at the sensor
713
(a) Colobot. (b) Cross section of Colobot.
Fig. 1. Colobot and its cross section.
plane. A method based on a circumscribed circle is utilized to
calculate a real-time reference position of the ColoBot inside the
colon. A kinematic-based position control strategy will use the
reference position to adjust the shape of the ColoBot in order to
achieve guidance. The paper will touch upon the following topics:
the structure of ColoBot will be described in Section 3 along with
its sensor system. Section 4 will deal with the kinematics and
characterization of pneumatic actuators. The implementation of
the sensor-based planning algorithm and kinematic control will be
detailed in Sections 5 and 6 respectively. Experimental results will
be presented in Section 7, followed by the conclusions.
3. Design of silicone rubber based robotic tip
3.1. ColoBot
The design of ColoBot is inspired by pioneer work [35] on a
flexible micro-actuator (FMA) based on silicone rubber. Fig. 1(a)
shows our design of the ColoBot. The robotic manipulator is a
kind of continuum robot [16] that is a unique unit with 3 active
pneumatic chambers regularly disposed at 120◦ apart. These three
chambers are used for actuation; three other chambers shown
in Fig. 1(b) are designed to optimize the mechanical structure in
order to reduce the radial expansion of active chambers under
pressure. The outer diameter of the tip is 17 mm that is lesser
than the average diameter of the colon. The diameter of the inner
hole is 8 mm, which is used in order to place the camera or other
lighting tools. The weight of the prototype is 20 g. The internal
pressure of each chamber (1.5 mm in diameter) is independently
controlled by using pneumatic jet-pipe servovalves. The promising
result obtained from the preliminary experiment showed that this
tip could bend up to 120◦ .
3.2. Distance sensors
In order for the ColoBot to guide its own progression
automatically, special non-contact position sensors are used to
measure the relative position between the top-end of the ColoBot
and the colon wall. Because of the flexibility of the optical fibers,
of their small size and of non-contact property, three optical fibers
position sensors fabricated by ROBERVAL laboratory of Université
Technologique de Compiègne France [34] are integrated into the
ColoBot. Each sensor is placed in front of each active pneumatic
chamber. As for the principle of the sensor, the light of the optical
fiber sensor is emitted from a cold source of light, and is transferred
by fiber. The light reflected by a mirror is then injected in the
reception fibers placed around the emission fiber. The amount
of reflected light detected is a function of the distance between
714 G. Chen et al. / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 57 (2009) 712–722

(a) Optical sensors. (b) Characterisation of optical fibre sensors.

Fig. 2. Optical fibre position sensors.

the sensor and the surface of an object, Fig. 2(b) shows the
experimental results relating the measurement of output voltage
to the distance between the sensor and the porcine intestine. It is
divided into several working areas but it is always possible to use
the sensor in the different areas to measure a linear displacement
on a long range but the resolution will be more or less high.

4. Kinematics analysis of the robotic tip

The formulation of the kinematic model which relates the

position and of the distal end of Colobot in a cartesian frame to
the actuator inputs, is composed of three steps. Firstly, the silicone-
based actuator model—the relationship between the stretch length
of each chamber and the applied pressure in each chamber is
determined experimentally. Secondly, the robot bending shape
relating to the actuator inputs (length of each chamber or applied
pressure in each chamber) is determined through geometric
relationships. Finally, a kinematic model relates the task space
frame (distal end position inside the environment) to the robot
deformation shape with the assumption that the robot bending
shape is an arc of a circle.

Fig. 3. Kinematic parameters of Colobot.

4.1. Kinematic nomenclature

Fig. 3 shows the robot shape parameters and the corresponding
frames. The deformation shape of ColoBot is characterized by three
parameters as done in our previous prototype EDORA [30].
• L is the length of the virtual center line of the robotic tip
• α is the bending angle in the bending plane
• φ is the orientation of the bending plane
The frame Ru (O–xyz ) is fixed at the base of the actuator. The
x-axis is the one that passed by the center of the bottom end
and the center of the chamber 1. The xy-plane defines the plane
of the bottom of the actuator and the z-axis is orthogonal to
this plane. The frame Rs (O0 –uvw) is attached to the top end of
the manipulator. So the bending angle α is defined as the angle
between the O–z axis and O0 –w axis in the bending plane. The
orientation angle φ is defined as the angle between the O–x axis
and O–t axis, where O–t axis is the project of O0 –w axis on the plane
x–O–y. The notation is explained as the following:
1. i: chamber index, i = 1, 2, 3
2. R: radius of curvature of the centerline of the robotic tip
3. Li : arc length of the ith chamber
4. L0 : initial length of the chamber
5. Pi : pressure in the chamber i
6. S: effective surface of the chamber
7. Ri : radius of curvature of the ith chamber
8. ε : stretch length of the centerline
9. 1Li : the stretch length of the ith chamber
4.2. Characterization of pneumatic actuators
Bellows-based flexible robots presented in [36,24] suppose that
the length variation of each bellows is proportional to the applied
pressure. In our case, the silicone-based actuator shows strong
nonlinearity relating the stretch length of the chamber to the
pressure variation in preliminary experiments. This relationship is
described as:
1Li = fi (Pi ) (1)
where 1Li (i = 1, 2, 3) is the stretch length of each chamber with
corresponding pressure and fi (i = 1, 2, 3) is a nonlinear function
of Pi . The stretch length of a single chamber is measured when the
pressure is applied from 0 bar to the pressure maximum which
can make the actuator bend 90◦ , while the pressures of the other
two chambers are kept at zero bar. For precise measurements, the
pressure in the chamber is kept constant by using a closed-loop
controller. Since the deformation of the each chamber is an arc
of a circle, it is difficult to find a suitable sensor to measure the
arc length. A simple method is then used to measure the length
of the chamber. When the chamber is stretching under pressure,
a fine string is placed right outside the stretched chamber, so the
length of the string can be considered approximately as the length
of the chamber. Results obtained from experiments proved that
there is a non-linear behavior (hysteresis) between the pressure
and the stretch length of each chamber (Fig. 4(a)). A polynomial
 G. Chen et al. / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 57 (2009) 712–722 715

(a) Characterics of pneumtic chambers. (b) Norm variation vs polynomial order.

Fig. 4. Static characterics of pneumtic chambers and criterion of model order.

model is thus used to approximate the measurements. A criterion

based on the norm of the mean error is used to select the order
of each polynomial function fitting the data. This analysis shows
that a third order polynomial approximation (see Fig. 4(b)) allows
curve fitting significantly the actual data in the working zone of
each chamber i.e. above the threshold pressure of each chamber
(Fig. 4). The corresponding results can be written as:

if P1min < P1 < P1max



1 L = 37(P1 − P1min )3 − 54(P1 − P1min )2 − 9.5(P1 − P1min )


 1

if P2min < P2 < P2max

(2)
1L2 = −9(P2 − P2min )3 − 18(P2 − P2min )2 − 11(P2 − P2min )
if P3min < P3 < P3max



1L3 = 0.8(P3 − P3min )3 − 8.9(P3 − P3min )2 − 34(P3 − P3min )


where Pimin (i = 1, 2, 3) is the threshold of the working point of

each chamber and their values equal: P1min = 0.7 bar, P2min =
0.8 bar, P3min = 0.8 bar and Pimax (i = 1, 2, 3) is the maximum
pressure that can be applied into each chamber.
Fig. 5. Top view of the base coordinate (line l is the intersection line between the
4.3. Kinematics analysis base plane and the top-end plane o0 –uvw).

When the load effects are ignored and the deflected angle α is where h is the perpendicular height of the equilateral triangle
such as 0 < α < π , the deflected shape of the ColoBot at the obtained by the layout of the three chambers.
i=1 cos φi = 0, the length of virtual central line L is
P3
bending moment is assumed to be an arc of a circle. Given this Since
assumption, it is clear that: deduced as:
3
Li = α R i (3) 1X
L= Li . (8)
or 3 i=1

Li (L0 + ) And the orientation angle is deduced by combining Eqs. (6) and (7):
α= = . (4) √
Ri R 3(L2 − L3 )
φ = atan2 (9)
Angle φi is defined as the angle of the bending plans relative to the L3 + L2 − 2L1
chamber i, shown in Fig. 5 where atan2(x, y) is the four quadrant arctangent of the real parts
(
φ1 = −φ of the elements of x and y.
φ2 = 120 − φ In the same time, the radius of curvature of the center line and
(5)
the bending angle α are expressed as:
φ3 = −120 − φ.
 3
By using these angles, the radius of curvature of the chamber i can 
 h
P
be described as:

Li


R= √
2 3 λL (10)
Ri = R − h cos(φi ) (6)  √
λL

3

α=


and: h
2 where λL = L1 2 + L2 2 + L3 2 − L1 L2 − L2 L3 − L3 L1 . So the geometry-
Li = L − h cos(φi ) (7) based kinematic model relating the robot shape parameters to
3
716 G. Chen et al. / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 57 (2009) 712–722

actuator inputs (chamber length) is expressed as the following (by

combining Eqs. (8)–(10)):
3

1X
L = Li




 3 I =1

 √
3(L2 − L3 ) (11)
φ = atan2
L + L2 − 2L1


 √ 3
λL


α= .


h
By using the actuator models determined in Section 4.2,
the corresponding length of each chamber under the pressure
variation can be expressed as the following:

L1 = L0 + 1L1 = L0 + f (P1 )
(
L2 = L0 + 1L2 = L0 + f (P2 ) (12)
L3 = L0 + 1L3 = L0 + f (P3 ).
Thus the direct kinematic equations relating the robot shape
parameters to the input pressures are then represented by: Fig. 6. Position of ColoBot inside the colon.
 3
1X
L = L + fi (Pi )

0



 3 I =1
 √
3(f2 (P2 ) − f3 (P3 ))

φ = atan2 (13)
f3 3 ) + f2 (P2 ) − 2f1 (P1 )
( P



λ

 p
α =
 p

h
where λp = f1 (P1 )2 + f2 (P2 )2 + f3 (P3 )2 − f1 (P1 )f2 (P2 )
− f2 (P2 )f3 (P3 ) − f3 (P3 )f1 (P1 ).

4.4. Task space representation of kinematic model

With the assumption that the bending shape of ColoBot is an

arc of a circle, The cartesian coordinates (x, y, z) of the distal end
of Colobot in task space related to the robot bending parameters is
achieved through a cylindrical coordinate transformation.
Fig. 7. Computation of the safe position.
 L
 x= (1 − cos α) cos φ
α



L

1. Step 1: Three sensor measurements (s1, s2, s3) are collected.
y= (1 − cos α) sin φ (14)
 α 2. Step 2: Position Pn in the frame Rs (Fig. 7) is evaluated with these
L


sin α. three measurements.

z =
α
3. Step 3: If Pn is a safe position, then it’s necessary to go back to
And the state-space form of this model is given by step 1 for the next period (10 ms); otherwise, next safe position
X = f (Qp ) (15) Pn+1 described in the Frame Ru (Fig. 7) is calculated through the
circumscribed method and is fed to the kinematic control for
where X = (α, φ, L) , Qp = (P1 , P2 , P3 ) .
T T
execution.

5. Sensor-based motion planning algorithm for autonomous Fig. 8 shows the algorithm of the planning and guidance control
guidance of the distal end of the ColoBot inside the colon.

The objective of sensor-based motion planning is to calculate

the safe position of the distal-end of Colobot compared to the colon
wall in real-time based on the measurements of three distance
sensors for guidance inside the colon. For more simplicity but
without loss of generality, it is assumed that a colon is a cylindrical
tube and its cross section is an ellipse at the sensor plane. Fig. 6
illustrates the sensor plane, the distal end of ColoBot and the colon
axis.
With these assumptions, the safe position will be the central
axis of the colon. To approximate the colon axis, a method based on
a circumscribed circle is proposed. Since three points D1 , D2 and D3
(Fig. 7) of sensor measurements form a triangle, the center of the
circumscribed circle of this triangle is chosen as the safe position.
This approach iterates as following:
5.1. Positioning of the distal end of Colobot inside the colon
Let A be the center of the ColoBot, Ci (i = 1, 2, 3) be three sensor
points and Di (i = 1, 2, 3) be the measurement point of each sensor
on the colon wall. Fig. 7 shows the setting of these measurements.
The coordinates of points D1 , D2 and D3 can be obtained related
to the local coordinate frame Rs (u, v, w) whose origin Pn as
following (Fig. 3):
D1 : (s1 + R; 0; 0)Rs
(
D2 : (−(R + s2) sin(π /6); −(R + s2) cos(π /6); 0)Rs (16)
D2 : (−(R + s3) sin(π /6); (R + s3) cos(π /6); 0)Rs .
 G. Chen et al. / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 57 (2009) 712–722 717

Fig. 9. Schema of the principle of the method.

Similarly for (D2 D3 ) and p2 , their equations are

Fig. 8. Sensor-based planning and guidance control procedure: d is the distance y = a3 x + b 3 and y = a4 x + b4 .
tolerance.
Then it leads to:
And the coordinates of Pn and points D1 , D2 and D3 in the  
YD3 − YD2 XD3 + XD2 YD3 + YD2
coordinate frame Ru (x, y, z) are expressed as: a3 = ; M2 ,
XD3 − XD2 2 2
L cos φ sin α
( )
1
Pn = −L sin φ sin α b4 = YM2 − a2 XM2 ; a4 = − .
a3
L cos α Ru
cos φ[(s1 + R) cos α + L sin α] So Pn+1 is the solution of these equation:
( )
OD1 = sin φ[(s1 + R) cos α − L sin α]
y = a2 x + b 2
(s1 + R) sin α + L cos α Ru (18)

−(s2 + R) sin(π /6) cos φ cos α+
 y = a4 + b 4 .
 
(s2 + R) cos(π /6) sin φ + L cos φ sin α 
 
Thus Pn+1 = ( a4 −a2 ; a2 a4 −a2 + b2 ) (Fig. 9).
b −b b −b

(17)

OD2 = −(s2 + R) sin(π /6) sin φ cos α− 2 4 2 4

(s2 + R) cos(π /6) cos φ − L sin φ sin α 


 


−(s2 + R) sin(π /6) sin φ + L cos α 6. Formulation of task space control of ColoBot

 Ru
s3 + R) sin(π /6) cos φ cos α−

 −( 
(s3 + R) cos(π /6) sin φ + L cos φ sin α  After determining the desired trajectory from sensor-based

 

OD3 = −(s3 + R) sin(π /6) sin φ cos α + . planning, the kinematic control of Colobot will be described in this
(s3 + R) cos(π /6) cos φ − L sin φ sin α  sectioin. It should be noted that two variables are used to represent

 

−(s3 + R) sin(π /6) sin α + L cos α the position of Colobot inside the colon. However, the Colobot has
 
R u
3 degrees of freedom. So this manipulator becomes redundant for
the chosen task. The velocity kinematic equations are rewritten as
5.2. Method based on a circumscribed circle for calculating the safe following:
position
X = f (Qp )
The center of the circumscribed circle formed by the triangle ∂X ∂(α, φ, L) ∂ QL ˙
(D1 , D2 , D3 ) has the same distance to the three points. Thus, this Ẋ = Qp or (19)
∂(α, φ, L) ∂ QL ∂ QP
center will be the intersection of the medians p1 and p2 of the line
segment [D1 D2 ] and [D2 D3 ]. In the coordinate frame Ru (x, y, z ), the Ẋ = Js Jl Jp Q˙p = J Q˙p
equations of different straight lines are represented by: where X = (x, y)T , QL = (L1 , L2 , L3 )T , Qp = (P1 , P2 , P3 )T and
YD2 − YD1 J = Js Jl Jp is the Jacobian matrix with relation to the three levels
(D1 D2 ) : y = a1 x + b1 ; a1 = of pressure in the chambers.
XD2 − XD1
(p1 ) : y = a2 x + b 2
6.1. Resolution of the inverse kinematics with redundancy
is the perpendicular at (D1 D2 ) and pass by
In the case of a redundant manipulator with respect to a given
 
XD1 + XD2 YD1 + YD2
M1 , task, the inverse kinematic problem admits infinite solutions.
2 2
This suggests that redundancy can be conveniently exploited to
thus, meet additional constraints on the kinematic control problem in
1 order to obtain greater manipulability in terms of the manipulator
a2 = − and b2 = YM1 − a2 XM1 . configurations and interaction with the environment. A viable
a1
718 G. Chen et al. / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 57 (2009) 712–722

7.1. Simulation results of sensor-based planning

During the simulation in Matlab, the size of ColoBot is simulated

Fig. 10. Simulation results of the circumscribed method.
solution method is to formulate the problem as a constrained
linear optimization problem. Work on resolved-rate control [37]
proposed to use the Moore–Penrose pseudo inversion of the
Jacobian matrix as:
as 18 mm and the height as 90 mm. The cross section of the colon
is assumed to be an ellipse with the long axis 34 mm and the
short axis 24 mm. The initial position of the ColoBot is chosen
randomly and then the position algorithm will make the Colobot
near to the center of the ellipse. During the experiment, the colon
is fixed and the sensor measurements are simulated with Gaussian
measurement noise. Fig. 10 shows the results of positioning inside
the ellipse. The final position of the ColoBot is 3.33 mm far from the
median line of the ellipse after four simulation cycles (10 ms/cycle).
Furthermore, it showed that the algorithm has some oscillations in
order to find the median line of the ellipse. This can be explained
that there is no absolute position that makes three measurements
equal due to the colon shape and the noise of the measurements.
Since the purpose of guidance control is to minimize the contact
between the robot and the colon wall, Colobot can achieve real-
time safe guidance control by choosing a suitable tolerance.
7.2. Implementation

Q˙p = J + Ẋ = (J T (JJ T )−1 )Ẋ . (20) Fig. 11 shows the low-level control system of ColoBot. The
pressurized air comes through the compressor (1) and the general
In our case, however, there is a mechanical limit range for pressure is adjusted thanks to the device (2). The pressure in the
the elongation of each chamber and the corresponding pressure chambers are controlled by three Jet-pipe servovalves (3a, 3b and
applied into the chamber of the ColoBot. The objective function is 3c). Three pressure sensors (4a, 4b and 4c) are connected between
constructed to be included in the inverse Jacobian algorithms as
the servovalves and the ColoBot (5) for the pressure feedback
the second criteria also called the null-space method [38,39].
control. Suitable drivers and amplifiers in the rack (6) were
Q˙p = J + Ẋ + µ[I − J + J ]ġ (21) designed to amplify control signals applied to the actuator. A real-
time controller is implemented through a Dspace card Real-Time
where µ is constant and g is the second criteria for optimization
Workshop with Simulink. The Simulink block diagram designed
of the solution. This objective function evaluates the pressure
for path planning and kinematics algorithms are expressed with
difference between the applied pressure in the chamber and the
Simulink block diagram which will be compiled as real-time
average pressure applied in the chamber. So the cost function w(P )
executable under the DSP Processor of Dspace card. The system
is expressed as following:
runs at 500 Hz for a real-time control loop.
3  2
1X Pi − Piav e
w(P ) = . (22)
7.2.1. Kinematic control
3 i=1 Pimax − Pimin
To validate the position control for ColoBot, the real experiment
We can then minimize w(p) by choosing: on the Colobot as well as simulation have been carried out. The
∂w ∂w ∂w desired trajectory is a circle with a diameter of 50 mm. The
 
ġ = grad w(P ) = . (23) kinematic control algorithm is implemented under the assumption
∂ P1 ∂ P2 ∂ P3
that the displacement of distal-end of ColoBot are sufficiently small
in a cycle. Thus the velocity kinematics relating state velocities and
7. Simulations and experimental results Cartesian velocities can be approximated by 1X /1T and 1Qp /1T .
The figure on the left of Fig. 13 shows the simulation control
This section will present the simulation and experimental pressure of three chambers, while the one on the right shows the
results of sensor-based planning and an autonomous guidance real control pressure to the three chambers. Fig. 12(b) shows the
control algorithm on an emulation platform and a colon-like tube. comparison of experimental results and simulation results of a

Fig. 11. Kinematic parameters of the Colobot.

 G. Chen et al. / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 57 (2009) 712–722
(a) miniBIRD and Colobot.
Fig. 12. Kinematic control results.
Fig. 13. Applied pressure control to chambers of ColoBot: Simulation (left) and real experiment (right).
Fig. 14. Emulator for the operation of Colonoscopy.
trajectory tracking. The position of the distal-end in the XOY plane
for the simulation is calculated using Eq. (14), while the position
in the XOY plane for real-time experiments is acquired through
using a 6 DOF magnetic tracker (miniBIRD) positioned at the top
of the ColoBot. The small difference between two trajectories is
explained by the fact that three chambers have different working
zones (Fig. 4(a)).
7.2.2. Experimental results on an emulation platform
For the purpose of testing the performance of sensor-based
planning and guidance, an emulation platform (Fig. 14) is designed
719
(b) Simulation and real trajectory.
and built to emulate the insertion process of a colonoscope in
the colon. The base of this platform can manually move in two
directions (X , Y ) which simulates the movements of a colonoscope
inside the colon. The bottom of ColoBot is fixed on that platform,
ColoBot can thus move in the same way as does the platform. A
tube with the diameter of 35 mm is placed in a circle emulating
the colon.
With this experimental setup, the test is to validate the sensor-
based planning and guidance capability. The base of the platform
moves stochastically in X and Y directions in order to emulate the
movement of a colonoscope in the colon. Thus the best trajectory
of distal end of ColoBot is the central axis of the tube. By calculating
the trajectory as near as possilbe, ColoBot can avoid contacting
with the tube wall. Fig. 15(a) plots the position of distal-end of
ColoBot inside the tube with respect to the time. The dashed line is
the desired trajectory and the solid line is the calculated trajectory
by the method based on a circumscribed circle. It can be seen that
safe position is always around the desired position. Furthermore,
the movements of the base and three sensor measurements are
shown in Fig. 15(b).
7.2.3. Experimental results in a colon-like tube
A more realistic experiment to test the performance of this
semi-autonomous colonoscopy system is to to use a colon-like
transparent tube to see if ColoBot can cross the tube with minimal
contact with the tube wall. The diameter of the tube is 26 mm and
its length is 50 cm (Fig. 16). For this experiment, the calibration
of the optical fibres was adapted to the transparent tube. It’s
720 G. Chen et al. / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 57 (2009) 712–722

(a) Guidance control results. (b) Sensor measurement evolution.

Fig. 15. Guidance control with an emulation platform.

Fig. 16. Steering control test in a colon-like tube.

Fig. 17. Evolution of bending angle of ColoBot.

highly probable that results for the distance sensors in a porcine
intestine will be similar to those obtained in the human bowel.
The colonoscope tip is manually inserted and Fig. 17 showed
that ColoBot crossed the different positions of the tube with a
different bending angle. The evolution of the measurements of
three optical fibres are represented in the left Fig. 18(a). During the
entire movement, the distances are never less than 0.8 mm. This
demonstrates that the colonoscope tip is moving through the tube
without touching it. For a better representation and visualization,
Fig. 18(b) shows the extreme positions of the top-end of ColoBot
as it progresses (with a velocity of 4 cm/s). The position of the
ColoBot at the center of the tube is represented by the smallest
circle. The larger circle represents the tube wall and the line shows
the extreme positions of ColoBot. This experiment demonstrates
that ColoBot has the capability to guide the exploration of the tube
with a sensor-based steering control method.
8. Conclusions and future works
This paper presented a sensor-based safe path generation
and guidance control of a biologically-inspired continuum robot-
ColoBot for a semi-autonomous colonoscopy. The pneumatic
driven Colobot is a silicone-based robotic manipulator which
is driven through pneumatic actuators. Three optical fiber
distance sensors are utilized for sensor-based safe real-time path
generation for guidance control under compliant and slippery
environments of the colon.
With the assumption that the measure plane is an ellipse, a
method based on a circumscribed circle is utilized to calculate the
 G. Chen et al. / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 57 (2009) 712–722
(a) Evolution of three measurements. (b) Extreme position projected into the tube plane.
Fig. 18. Guidance control result analysis.
reference position of the ColoBot. While position control in task
space used these reference positions to adjust the shape of ColoBot
inside the colon to achieve guidance. The simulation results of
sensor-based planning and experimental results with an emulation
platform and with a transparent tube verified the effectivity of
kinematic control and guidance strategy. In the near future, the
proposed method will be tested in a vivo environment.
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G. Chen received his B.Sc. degree in mechatronics from
Jilin University, China, the M.S. degree in control theory &
engineering from Chinese Academy of Sciences, China and
the Ph.D. degree in Robotics from INSA de Lyon, France,
in 1999, 2002 and 2005, respectively. From 2006 to 2007,
He was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Emotion group of INRIA
Rhone-alpes, France.
Currently, he is a Marie Curie Research Fellow at
Unilever R&D, Port Sunlight, UK. His research interests
includes medical robotics, especially on modeling and
control of flexible robots, mechatronics, also planning and
navigation of autonomous mobile vehicles.
M.T. Pham received the M.E. in electrical engineering in
1998, the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in control engineering
from the University of Nantes, France in 1998 and 2001,
respectively. He joined the Laboratoire d’Automatique
Industrielle (LAI), Lyon, France, in 2003 and is currently
Assistant Professor at the Mechanical Engineering Design
Department of INSA, Lyon, France. His research interests
include robot identification, control, and the applications
to medical robotics.
T. Redarce received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering
from the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble
(INPG) in 1984. He received his Habilitate Doctor level
from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de
Lyon (INSA) in 1995. He was assistant professor for
15 years in the Mechanical Engineering Department (INSA
de Lyon) and then professor in the Electrical Engineering
Department. He taught automatic control and Industrial
Informatic. In 1999, H. T. Redarce was a visiting researcher
at the laboratoire d’Imagerie, de Vision et d’Intelligence
artficielle (LIVIA) de l’Ecole de technologie Supérieure de
l’Université du Québec in montréal (Canada). Since 2000 he is at the head of the
laboratory’s robotics research team.
His interests include medical robotics, mechatronics systems, and robotic
vision. He has published more than 100 papers in various journals and conferences.