"Pop-up" endoscope arm could perform operations in lungs or brain

Endoscopic medical robot surgery relies on mounting remotely-controlled tools on the end of a flexible device that surgeons can manoeuvre through pathways in the body to sites that would be difficult or too damaging to reach via conventional surgery.

One drawback of the technique is that the tools on the end of the endoscope have to be rigid, which reduces the dexterity and sensitivity of the surgeon operating the device.

Researchers from the Wyss Institute for Biologically-Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, who are working with a technique known as pop-up fabrication, have now developed a hybrid soft-rigid robot arm for endoscopic surgery that includes integrated sensors, and also possesses unprecedented flexibility and multiple degrees of freedom of movement.

So far tested on animal tissues, the arm lies flat on an endoscope until it reaches the surgical site, then pops up to perform surgery.

Pop-up fabrication first came to notice in 2013 when a team led by Prof Robert Wood at the Wyss Institute used it to build tiny flying robots known as Robobees.