Inside the operation room of Chinese PLA General Hospital, a patient was undergoing a digestive tract inspection. It was performed by a robot. It was the first clinical test of Flexible Endoscope Manipulation Robot (FEMR) assisted digestive tract intervention in the world, jointly carried out by researchers from the Shenyang Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (SIACAS) and the Chinese PLA General Hospital on Dec 20, 2017.

Prof. Yang Yunsheng, chairman of the digestive disease branch of the Chinese Medical Association, manipulated the robot to carry out the inspection along the upper digestive tract. FEMR was developed by a research team led by Liu Hao of SIACAS with the support of the National Key Technology Research Development Program in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15).

According to Liu, FEMR has fundamentally changed the traditional mode of endoscopic operations. “It spares the doctors the effort of standing beside the patients while holding the endoscope; they only need to operate the joysticks to complete the clinical operation,” Liu said. FEMR has passed the General Safety Test (GB 9706.1) and EMC Test (YY 0505). A series of ergonomics such as double arm configuration, intuitive mapping and an integrated irrigation and suction system were used in the robot’s design to achieve an accurate and safe soft endoscoptic operation that is obviously superior to the traditional procedure in the degree of freedom and coordination made possible and the quantitative display of operating parameters.

FEMR is a breakthrough in the field of surgical robotics. The DaVinci surgical robot has had great achievements and holds a comprehensive monopoly in thoracic and abdominal minimally invasive surgery, but is incapable of diagnosis and treatment in intracavities such as the digestive, urinary and respiratory system. The development of FEMR has great prospects for clinical application.

Clinical test of Flexible Endoscope Manipulation Robot (FEMR) assisted digestive tract intervention

(IMAGE FROM SHENYANG INSTITUTE OF AUTOMATION, CAS)

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Liu Hao

Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences

E-mail: liuhao@sia.cn

Source: Shenyang Institute of Automation