Origami Endoscope Design for MRI-Guided Therapy

The implementation of origami techniques into disposable surgical robotic tools is a promising research area with numerous clinical applications. Origami allows for flat foldable structures that can fit through small incisions, reducing patient scarring and recovery time as well as surgical costs. Devices that can provide tight navigation through curved anatomical pathways are crucial during these types of surgery, and can cost anywhere from hundreds to several thousands of dollars. It was hypothesized that an origami design based on a chain of deployable compliant rolling-contact elements (D-COREs) could be applied to design and fabricate a medical endoscope from a single sheet of 2D material (Fig. 1) to simplify fabrication and reduce the cost to under $100 [1–3]. We used software to model the physical actuation range of the endoscope and tested actuation of the D-COREs with shape-memory alloy (SMA).