Robotic System for Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery

The objective of this project is to implement and demonstrate a new robotic system enabling Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) that improves surgical care of warfighters and their families. The proposed NOTES system will be used for many military and civilian surgery needs, especially on natural orifice diagnosis and treatment of acute appendicitis at a role 2 facility with return of the warfighter to active duty within 6 hours of surgery. In this Phase I project, the American GNC Corporation (AGNC) team provides a significant technological breakthrough with a NOTES robotic system which has five innovative features: a small size flexible robotic system structure; the capability of passing multiple surgical tools through the flexible robotic system for surgery procedures; a controllable motion of the NOTES system for better maneuverability; an intuitive user input device (UID) for easy operation and an image based guidance for enhanced situation awareness. The team will leverage its unexcelled expertise in advanced robot design, robotic guidance and control, graphical user interface, communications and robotics surgery in the development.