Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) is an important and emerging field in surgery. In this method, surgical tools are passed through a natural orifice such as the vagina, anus, or esophagus to the surgical site. Without skin incisions, patients can recover more quickly with less pain and without visible abdominal scarring [1,2]. This can also decrease occurrence of wound complications [3]. Although there are advantages using NOTES, there are also some possible constraints such as limitation in motor capabilities, limited space, and lack of visual/tool triangulation [3,4].
Based on our previous work on NOTES robots [5,6], this paper presents benchtop validation of a prototype robot comprising a snakelike articulated section and two arms with multitool changing capability. Three experiments are presented to validate the functionality and capability of the robot system.
Figure 1 demonstrates the...
