End adjustable bending catheter based on dielectric material driving and its autonomous steering method

Abstract

The application provides a terminal adjustable bending catheter based on dielectric material driving and an autonomous steering method thereof, and belongs to the technical field of dielectric driving catheters. The application comprises: a soft hose, a bending part at the front end of the hose is divided into four regions, adjacent regions are separated by an insulating material boundary; a dielectric coating is coated on the opposite regions of the hose, the dielectric coating is composed of a material with dielectric properties, including but not limited to polyvinyl chloride or acrylate; when the dielectric coating is powered, the opposite regions are subjected to plane stretching or compression deformation under the action of an electric field, the hose is bent, and the hose restores to the original state by relying on its elasticity after power-off, thereby realizing autonomous steering. The application realizes autonomous steering without an external magnetic field or mechanical transmission by coating the dielectric material on the hose and driving in zones, and solves the problems of insufficient steering accuracy, poor flexibility and manual control delay in the prior art.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of dielectrically driven catheter, in particular to a tip-adjustable bending catheter based on dielectric material driving and an autonomous steering method thereof. BACKGROUND

[0002] In the field of modern engineering technology, whether it is biomedical, industrial detection or robot technology, the steering accuracy, flexibility and response speed of the actuator are strictly required. For example, in minimally invasive surgery, as a key treatment method with small trauma and fast recovery, the performance of surgical instruments directly determines the success or failure of the surgery. Magnetic-driven flexible surgical claws, with their flexible and deformable characteristics, can penetrate into complex cavities and narrow spaces in the human body, avoiding excessive damage to surrounding tissues, and showing great application potential. However, the current steering technology has many problems: traditional rigid instruments are difficult to adapt to complex physiological structures inside the human body due to material and structural limitations, and have serious lack of steering flexibility, which may cause tissue tearing and other complications; flexible instruments driven by motors are limited in operation in narrow spaces due to their size, weight and heating problems, and mechanical transmission components are prone to failure; existing magnetic driving technology faces challenges such as insufficient steering accuracy (magnetic field inhomogeneity causes deviation), poor flexibility (difficult to steer in three dimensions), and manual control delay (response lag of 0.5-1 seconds in dynamic environment), which has high risk in operating millimeter-level lesions and switching complex blood vessel branches.

[0003] In the field of industrial detection and flaw detection, the probe guiding mechanism of traditional detection equipment also has limitations. For example, in the internal detection of complex structures such as pipelines and pressure vessels, rigid detection arms are difficult to penetrate into curved pipelines or narrow gaps, and flexible detection devices mostly rely on mechanical transmission or hydraulic driving, which have slow response and low control accuracy, resulting in many detection dead angles and high missed detection rate. Especially in harsh environments such as high temperature and high pressure, the delay and instability of manual control further exacerbate the detection difficulty, affecting the accuracy of industrial safety assessment.

[0004] In the field of continuum robots and rigid-flexible coupled robots, the steering performance of flexible joints is a key factor that restricts their motion flexibility. Traditional rigid joints are difficult to achieve continuous bending and multi-degree-of-freedom motion, and existing flexible joints mostly use pneumatic, hydraulic driving or shape memory alloy materials, which have problems such as complex structure, slow response speed and insufficient control accuracy. For example, pneumatic-driven joints are easily affected by air pressure fluctuations, resulting in poor steering stability; shape memory alloy joints have the defects of long heating time and slow cooling speed, which are difficult to meet the demand of fast dynamic response, limiting the application of robots in precision assembly, rescue and disaster relief scenes.

[0005] Therefore, regardless of medical, industrial or robotic field, there is an urgent need for a self-turning technology that can achieve high precision, high flexibility and fast response through the characteristics of the material itself without relying on external magnetic field or complex mechanical transmission, to solve the common problems of traditional turning methods in precision, flexibility, stability and dynamic response, and to meet the needs of precise operation of the actuator in complex environment in different fields. SUMMARY

[0006] In order to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art, the purpose of the present application is to provide an end adjustable bending catheter based on dielectric material driving and a self-turning method thereof, by coating dielectric material on a soft hose and driving by partition, the self-turning of the device without external magnetic field or complex mechanical transmission is realized, and the problems of insufficient turning precision, poor flexibility and manual control delay in the traditional technology in the fields of medical, industrial detection, robot, etc.

[0007] To achieve the above purpose, the present application provides the following scheme:

[0008] An end adjustable bending catheter based on dielectric material driving, comprising:

[0009] A soft hose, the bending part at the front end of the soft hose is divided into four areas, and adjacent areas are separated by an insulating material boundary;

[0010] A dielectric coating is coated on the opposite areas of the soft hose, the dielectric coating is composed of a material with dielectric properties, and the material with dielectric properties includes but is not limited to polyvinyl chloride or acrylate;

[0011] When the dielectric coating is powered, the opposite areas are subjected to planar stretching or compression deformation under the action of electric field, driving the soft hose to bend, and restoring to the original state by itself after power off, realizing self-turning.

[0012] Preferably, a control wire is provided at the dielectric coating of each group of opposite areas of the soft hose, or a control wire is provided at the dielectric coating of each area, the control wire is connected to an external adjustable power supply, the knob of the adjustable power supply is marked with the corresponding relationship between voltage and bending degree, and the control wire is connected with a plurality of loop switches and a Bluetooth control system for wireless adjustment of driving voltage parameters.

[0013] Preferably, the dielectric coating is composed of an elastic polymer film and two flexible electrodes on both sides, and the elastic polymer film is composed of a polymer material with elasticity.

[0014] The present application also provides a self-turning method of the end adjustable bending catheter based on dielectric material driving, comprising the following steps:

[0015] S1, the material with dielectric properties is coated as a dielectric coating on the opposite region of the front end of the thin hose divided into four regions;

[0016] S2, the dielectric coating of the opposite region of the thin hose is connected to an external adjustable power supply through a control wire;

[0017] S3, the driving voltage of the adjustable power supply is adjusted so that the dielectric coating deforms under the action of the electric field, driving the opposite region of the thin hose to bend, and then realizing the steering of the two groups of opposite regions of the thin hose in the x-axis and y-axis directions respectively;

[0018] S4, after power off, the dielectric coating restores to its original state by relying on elasticity, and the steering reset is completed.

[0019] Preferably, in S3, the Bluetooth control system is allowed to remotely transmit voltage adjustment instructions to adjust the steering angle in real time, and then adjust the driving voltage of the adjustable power supply.

[0020] Preferably, the dielectric coating of the opposite region of the thin hose is separated by an insulating material boundary to realize independent driving control of the partition.

[0021] The application also provides an application of the above-mentioned end-adjustable bending catheter driven by dielectric material, which is applied in the fields of magnetic-driven surgical robots, industrial detection or defect detection, continuum robots and rigid-flexible coupled robots.

[0022] Preferably, when applied to a magnetic-driven surgical robot, the adjustable bending catheter serves as an end operation arm of a surgical execution mechanism, and a miniature camera and a surgical tool interface are integrated at the rear part of the adjustable bending catheter, the miniature camera is used to collect images of a surgical area in real time, and the surgical tool interface is used to connect biopsy forceps or ablation electrodes.

[0023] Preferably, when applied to industrial detection or defect detection, an ultrasonic flaw detector or an X-ray detector is installed at the front end of the adjustable bending catheter, and a wear-resistant layer is coated on the outer surface of the adjustable bending catheter, the wear-resistant layer is composed of polytetrafluoroethylene material.

[0024] Preferably, when applied to a continuum robot or a rigid-flexible coupled robot, the adjustable bending catheter serves as a flexible joint unit of the robot, and at least two adjustable bending catheters are connected in series between adjacent rigid links to form a bending structure with redundant degrees of freedom.

[0025] According to the specific embodiments provided by the application, the following technical effects are disclosed:

[0026] (1) The present application realizes autonomous steering without relying on external magnetic fields or complex mechanical transmission by coating a dielectric material on a thin hose and adopting a partition driving design, breaking the dependence of traditional technology on manual operation. This feature not only solves the problem of control delay of magnetic driving surgical robots in dynamic physiological environments, realizes real-time following of lesions, but also meets the demand for remote precise control in harsh environments in industrial detection, and the requirement for rapid response of continuum robots, providing a universal autonomous steering solution for multiple fields.

[0027] (2) The present application utilizes the dielectric properties and mechanical properties of materials with dielectric properties to precisely control the deformation of the dielectric coating through voltage, realizing accurate control of the steering angle. Compared with the steering deviation caused by uneven magnetic field in traditional magnetic driving technology, the cumulative error of mechanical transmission of industrial detection equipment, and the stability problem of pneumatic / hydraulic driving of continuum robots, the present application significantly improves the precision in various operation scenes and reduces the risk caused by steering error.

[0028] (3) The present application divides the front end of the thin hose into four regions and coats the dielectric coating on the front end, enabling the device to have multi-directional flexible steering capability in three-dimensional space. This design not only adapts to complex cavity environments such as human digestive tract and blood vessels, solves the problem of excessive or insufficient steering in branched and wrinkled cavities in traditional technology, but also meets the detection needs of curved pipelines and narrow gaps in industrial detection, and the requirement for multi-degree-of-freedom motion in precise operation of continuum robots, effectively expanding the application scenarios of the device in medical, industrial, and robotic fields. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0029] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application or the prior art, the following will briefly introduce the drawings needed in the embodiments. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present application, and other drawings can be obtained by those skilled in the art without creative labor.

[0030] Figure 1 The overall structure schematic diagram of the present application is provided for a terminal adjustable bending catheter based on dielectric material driving.

[0031] Figure 2 The overall structure and control system front view of the device of the present application is provided for a terminal adjustable bending catheter based on dielectric material driving.

[0032] Figure 3 The flowchart of the autonomous steering method of the present application is provided for a terminal adjustable bending catheter based on dielectric material driving.

[0033] Explanation of reference signs:

[0034] 1. Thin flexible tube; 2. Front end; 3. Bending section; 4. Rear end; 5. Dielectric coating; 6. Control wire; 7. Circuit switch; 8. Bluetooth control system. Detailed Implementation

[0035] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, and not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative effort are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0036] To make the above-mentioned objects, features and advantages of the present invention more apparent and understandable, the present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

[0037] Example

[0038] like Figure 1 and Figure 2 As shown, this invention provides an adjustable-bend conduit driven by a dielectric material. Using a flexible, thin tube 1 as a base, the curved portion 3 of its front end 2 is divided into four regions a, b, c, and d, serving as the core functional area for autonomous steering. Adjacent regions are separated by insulating material boundaries, forming independent deformation units. A dielectric coating 5 is applied to the opposing regions of the thin tube 1, i.e., a and c, b and d. The dielectric coating 5 is composed of a material with dielectric properties, including but not limited to polyvinyl chloride or acrylate. In this embodiment, the dielectric coating 5 is composed of polar fluorinated polyacrylate (DE) material. Furthermore, the dielectric coating 5 consists of an elastic polymer film and flexible electrodes on both sides. The elastic polymer film is composed of an elastic polymer material. In this embodiment, the elastic polymer film is composed of silicone rubber or acrylate material, possessing high dielectric constant and low Young's modulus characteristics. When the dielectric coating 5 is energized, the opposing regions undergo planar stretching or compression deformation under the influence of an electric field, causing the thin tube 1 to bend. After power is cut off, it recovers its original shape through its own elasticity, achieving autonomous steering.

[0039] In addition, each group of opposing dielectric coatings 5 ​​of the thin flexible tube 1 is provided with a control wire 6, or each region of the dielectric coating 5 is provided with a control wire 6. The control wire 6 is connected to an external adjustable power supply. The knob of the adjustable power supply is marked with the correspondence between voltage and bending degree for easy precise operation. Furthermore, the control wire 6 located at the rear 4 of the thin flexible tube 1 is connected to several circuit switches 7 and a Bluetooth control system 8, which supports wireless transmission of voltage adjustment commands and enables remote parameter optimization.

[0040] Working principle: when working, the dielectric coating 5 is subjected to the action of electric field under the energized state to generate Maxwell stress, thereby causing the planar stretching or compression deformation of the dielectric coating 5 region, and the deformation difference of the opposite region drives the opposite region of the thin flexible tube 1 to bend, so as to realize the turning in the x-axis or y-axis direction; after power-off, the dielectric coating 5 restores to the original state by relying on its elasticity, thereby completing the turning reset. Specifically, first, the polar fluorinated polyacrylate DE material is coated on the four-quadrant opposite region of the front end 2 of the thin flexible tube 1, and the electric connection with the adjustable power supply is established through the control wire 6; then, the driving voltage is adjusted, the coating deformation amount is accurately controlled according to the voltage-bending degree corresponding relationship, and the independent driving of the partition is realized; in cooperation with the Bluetooth control system 8, the voltage parameter can be adjusted in real time and remotely, so as to adapt to the turning demand in the dynamic physiological environment.

[0041] In addition, the embodiment also provides an application of the end-adjustable bending catheter based on the dielectric material driving, which includes but is not limited to the application in the fields of magnetic-driven surgical robots, industrial detection or defect detection, continuum robots and rigid-flexible coupled robots.

[0042] When applied to the magnetic-driven surgical robot, the adjustable bending catheter serves as the end operation arm of the surgical execution mechanism, and a miniature camera and a surgical tool interface are integrated at the rear part of the adjustable bending catheter, the miniature camera is used for collecting the images of the surgical area in real time, and the surgical tool interface is used for connecting biopsy forceps or ablation electrodes.

[0043] When applied to the industrial detection or defect detection, the front end of the adjustable bending catheter is provided with an ultrasonic flaw detector or an X-ray detector, and the outer surface of the adjustable bending catheter is coated with a wear-resistant layer composed of polytetrafluoroethylene material.

[0044] When applied to the continuum robot or rigid-flexible coupled robot, the adjustable bending catheter serves as the flexible joint unit of the robot, and at least two adjustable bending catheters are connected in series between adjacent rigid links, so as to form a bending structure with redundant degrees of freedom.

[0045] It should be noted that the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all the embodiments.

[0046] The specific implementation method is shown in Figure 3 The present application also provides an autonomous turning method of the end-adjustable bending catheter based on the dielectric material driving, which includes the following steps:

[0047] S1, a material with dielectric properties is coated as a dielectric coating on the opposite region of the front end of the thin flexible tube, which is divided into four regions;

[0048] S2, the dielectric coating of the opposite region of the thin flexible tube is connected to an external adjustable power supply through a control wire;

[0049] S3, adjust the driving voltage of the adjustable power supply, so that the dielectric coating deforms under the action of the electric field, and the fine hose opposite area is bent, and then the fine hose two groups of opposite areas control the turning of x axis and y axis directions respectively;

[0050] S4, after power off, the dielectric coating restores to the original state by relying on elasticity, and the turning reset is completed.

[0051] Specifically, in S3, the Bluetooth control system is allowed to remotely transmit voltage adjustment instructions to adjust the turning angle in real time, and then adjust the driving voltage of the adjustable power supply. In addition, the dielectric coating of the fine hose opposite area is separated by the boundary of insulating material, and independent driving control is realized.

[0052] Therefore, by using the above-mentioned end adjustable bending catheter based on dielectric material driving and the autonomous turning method thereof, the device can realize autonomous turning without external magnetic field or complex mechanical transmission by coating the dielectric material on the fine hose and driving it in partition, and the problems of insufficient turning precision, poor flexibility and manual control delay in the medical, industrial detection, robot and other fields in the prior art are solved.

[0053] The principles and implementation modes of the present application are described by using specific examples in this paper, and the above examples are only used to help understand the method of the present application and its core idea; at the same time, for those skilled in the art, according to the idea of the present application, the specific implementation mode and application range will be changed. In view of the above, the content of the specification should not be understood as a limitation of the present application.

Claims

1. A dielectric material-driven adjustable-end bendable conduit, characterized in that, include: The flexible, thin tube has a curved section at its front end divided into four areas, with adjacent areas separated by insulating material boundaries. A dielectric coating is applied to the opposite region of the thin tubing, the dielectric coating being made of a material having dielectric properties; When energized, the dielectric coating undergoes planar stretching or compression deformation in the opposite region under the influence of the electric field, causing the thin tubing to bend. After the power is cut off, it recovers its original shape by its own elasticity, thus achieving autonomous steering. Each group of opposing regions of the thin flexible tube is provided with a control wire corresponding to the dielectric coating, or each region of the dielectric coating is provided with a control wire. The control wire is connected to an external adjustable power supply. The knob of the adjustable power supply is marked with the correspondence between voltage and bending degree. The control wire is connected to several circuit switches and a Bluetooth control system for wirelessly adjusting the drive voltage parameters. The dielectric coating consists of an elastic polymer film and flexible electrodes on both sides, wherein the elastic polymer film is made of an elastic polymer material.

2. A method for autonomous steering of an adjustable-bend conduit driven by dielectric material according to claim 1, characterized in that, Includes the following steps: S1. A dielectric material is used as a dielectric coating and applied to the opposite regions of the front end of the thin tube, which are divided into four areas. S2. Connect the dielectric coating of the opposite area of ​​the thin hose to an external adjustable power supply via a control wire; S3. Adjust the driving voltage of the adjustable power supply to cause the dielectric coating to deform under the action of the electric field, which in turn causes the opposing areas of the thin tube to bend, thereby enabling the two sets of opposing areas of the thin tube to control the direction of the x-axis and y-axis respectively. S4. After power is cut off, the dielectric coating recovers its original shape by relying on elasticity, thus completing the reversal and reset.

3. The autonomous steering method for an adjustable-bend conduit driven by dielectric material according to claim 2, characterized in that, In S3, the Bluetooth control system is allowed to remotely transmit voltage regulation commands, adjust the steering angle in real time, and thus regulate the drive voltage of the adjustable power supply.

4. The autonomous steering method for an end-adjustable bendable conduit driven by dielectric material according to claim 2, characterized in that, The dielectric coatings in the opposing regions of the thin flexible tube are separated by insulating material boundaries, enabling independent drive control in each zone.

5. An application of the dielectric material-driven adjustable-bend conduit according to claim 1, characterized in that, It is applied in the fields of magnetically driven surgical robots, industrial inspection or flaw detection, continuum robots, and rigid-flexible coupling robots.

6. The application of a dielectric material-driven adjustable-end bendable conduit according to claim 5, characterized in that, When applied to a magnetically driven surgical robot, the adjustable bendable catheter serves as the end effector arm of the surgical execution mechanism, and the rear of the adjustable bendable catheter integrates a miniature camera and a surgical tool interface. The miniature camera is used to acquire images of the surgical area in real time, and the surgical tool interface is used to connect biopsy forceps or ablation electrodes.

7. The application of a dielectric material-driven adjustable-end bendable conduit according to claim 5, characterized in that, When applied to industrial inspection or flaw detection, the front end of the adjustable bendable conduit is equipped with an ultrasonic flaw detector or an X-ray detector, and the outer surface of the adjustable bendable conduit is coated with a wear-resistant layer, which is made of polytetrafluoroethylene material.

8. The application of a dielectric material-driven adjustable-end bendable conduit according to claim 5, characterized in that, When applied to continuum robots or rigid-flexible coupling robots, the adjustable bending guide tube serves as a flexible joint unit of the robot, and adjacent rigid links are connected in series through at least two of the adjustable bending guide tubes to form a bending structure with redundant degrees of freedom.

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