Breakaway Mechanism and Sensor Integration for Medical Tractor Positioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing position sensing systems for flexible medical devices, such as catheters and endoscopes, lack effective mechanisms to re-engage breakaway mechanisms and integrate home and travel limit sensors, leading to potential tractor crashes and maintenance issues.
Innovation Solution
The proposed solution involves an apparatus with an actuator, a tractor, a driving unit, a board with channels, and a plurality of sensors, including home and travel limit sensors. The breakaway mechanism disconnects the actuator and tractor when excessive force is applied and includes a sensor to detect breakaway, initiating recovery and homing routines.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If breakaway mechanism is used to prevent excessive force transmission, then wire failure is prevented, but the tractor cannot return to home position and re-engagement cannot be ensured
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs feedback mechanisms through sensors (optical sensors, encoders) that monitor the tractor's position and the breakaway mechanism's state. When breakaway occurs, the system detects this through feedback from position sensors and automatically initiates recovery procedures, enabling the tractor to return to home position and re-engage without manual intervention.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements self-service through automatic recovery and homing routines that execute when breakaway is detected. The tractor automatically returns to its home position and re-engages with the catheter without requiring external assistance, making the system self-repairing after breakaway events.
2Reliability
If home and travel limit sensors are integrated, then tractor crash prevention is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges home position sensing and travel limit sensing functions into an integrated sensor system. Multiple sensors (optical sensors, encoders, limit switches) are combined to provide both home position detection and travel limit detection, reducing the need for separate sensing systems and simplifying the overall control architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The sensor system is designed with multi-functionality, where the same sensor array serves multiple purposes: detecting home position, detecting travel limits, monitoring breakaway events, and providing feedback for control algorithms. This universal sensing approach reduces device complexity while maintaining comprehensive safety functions.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution effectively re-engages breakaway mechanisms and integrates home and travel limit sensors, preventing tractor crashes and ensuring accurate positional detection and movement control of flexible medical devices.
Implementation Method 1
at least one positional sensor configured to detect light from the board
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus can include an actuator configured to move a wire along a longitudinal direction, a tractor that is connected to the wire and is configured to move the wire along the longitudinal direction, a driving unit, a first arm connected to the driving unit that drives the first arm to the longitudinal direction, a board connected to the first arm, a second arm connected to the wire, a plurality of sensors that can include at least a first sensor and a second sensor arranged at a different position from each other along a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, at least one positional sensor configured to detect light from the board, a support member configured to support at least one positional sensor, and a breakaway mechanism that can include a breakaway connector configured to connect and disconnect the first arm and the second arm.