Robotic Active Capsule Endoscope (RACE): advanced design, fabrication and control

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The project will investigate the development of two advanced RACE prototypes, wired and wireless versions, capable of forward, backward and rotational movements in a lower Gastrointestinal (GI) track phantom. The proposed prototypes will be designed and fabricated on the basis of reviewing the limitations of the current prototypes, fabricated using Queen Mary Innovation (QMI) Proof-of-Concept funding, to secure patents as guided by the QMI assigned patent attorney 'Kilburn and Strode'. The current prototypes are facilitated with basic control mechanism and advanced closed-loop control methodologies are required to be designed for smooth navigation of the RACE prototypes based on real-time position and orientation parameters sensing. Two methods will be investigated to obtain real-time position and orientation of the capsule: (i) accelerometer inserted inside the capsule and (ii) fluoroscopy. As a first step, a Proportional Integral and Derivative (PID) control method will be developed and implemented to establish the feasibility of feedback control of the capsule based on the obtained parameters. However, as the overall system is supposed to be highly nonlinear, a nonlinear control approach is expected to achieve better performance. As such, an artificial intelligence (AI) based such as fuzzy-logic based control approach will then be investigated. To reduce the possibility of tissue damage a nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) approach incorporating (i) the model of the capsule and (ii) the model of the interaction dynamics between the capsule and GI tract surface will be investigated.