Chapter 1 - Slender snake-like endoscopic robots in surgery

Abstract

For surgery, the targets inside the human body have complicated anatomical structures, which make access to the operating region challenging with high risks of bleeding and infections. Though keyhole surgical robots with articulated arms help surgeons to overcome the access difficulties in part, narrow and curved cavities require robots to be more compact and flexible. Thus snake-like robots are developed to cater to the demand because of their slim body and hyperredundancy in movement. This survey presents state-of-the-art knowledge about snake-like robots for robotic surgeries. We have investigated the commercial products, representative research prototypes, and new mechanical designs of the surgery-oriented snake-like robots. Additionally, for safe and precise human–robot interaction, modeling, sensing, and control of snake-like robots have been summarized.