Enabling the future of colonoscopy with intelligent and autonomous magnetic manipulation

这篇文章是Leeds组关于磁控内窥镜的各种理论/模块的结合起来的集大成者，发表在顶级期刊nature子刊machine intelligence。将自动驾驶中的自主性分级引入了智能机器人磁控内窥镜领域，总结了level-0至level-3的自主化磁控内窥镜，文中共介绍了三种机器人磁控内窥镜控制策略，对应于level-0的“直接控制机器人”，对应于level-1的“智能远程控制机器人”，和对应于level-3的“半自主化机器人”。详细介绍了在人类结肠仿体中的闭环转向/指位实验，三种机器人控制策略下的导航实验，比较了实验持续时间和成功率。还详细介绍了在猪结肠中的三种机器人控制策略下的导航实验，比较了实验持续时间。还介绍并评估了操作者（非专家，新手操作者）操作感受。详细总结性地介绍了磁控机器人内窥镜的磁控部分，图像转向/引导部分的理论。

通过智能和自主化磁操纵技术实现结肠镜检查的未来
Enabling the future of colonoscopy with intelligent and autonomous magnetic manipulation [1]
Paper Link
Authors: Martin, James W., et al.
2020, Nature Machine Intelligence

0. Abstract 摘要

结肠癌症的早期诊断实质上提高生存率。最终，超过一半的病例被太晚地诊断由于结肠镜的需求超过了容量，这是用于检查的黄金标准。结肠镜受限于传统内窥镜的过时的设计，这与使用的复杂性，费用，疼痛有关。磁内窥镜是一种有潜力的替代，并且克服疼痛和费用的缺点，但是他们努力达到过渡阶段当磁操纵是复杂的且不直观的。在这个工作中，我们使用机器视觉来开发磁内窥镜的智能的和自动化的控制，使非专家的用户能够有效地在内腔使用磁结肠镜。进一步说，我们定义为获取机器人内窥镜的自动化所需的特点。所这里描述的范例能被采纳在各种应用中，这些应用中的在非结构环境中的导航是需要的，比如导管，胰内窥镜，支气管镜和胃镜。这工作带来接近过渡阶段的可替代的内窥镜技术，增加了早期癌症治疗的可行性。
Early diagnosis of colorectal cancer substantially improves survival. However, over half of cases are diagnosed late due to the demand for colonoscopy—the ‘gold standard’ for screening—exceeding capacity. Colonoscopy is limited by the outdated design of conventional endoscopes, which are associated with high complexity of use, cost and pain. Magnetic endoscopes are a promising alternative and overcome the drawbacks of pain and cost, but they struggle to reach the translational stage as magnetic manipulation is complex and unintuitive. In this work, we use machine vision to develop intelligent and autonomous control of a magnetic endoscope, enabling non-expert users to effectively perform magnetic colonoscopy in vivo. We combine the use of robotics, computer vision and advanced control to offer an intuitive and effective endoscopic system. Moreover, we define the characteristics required to achieve autonomy in robotic endoscopy. The paradigm described here can be adopted in a variety of applications where navigation in unstructured environments is required, such as catheters, pancreatic endoscopy, bronchoscopy and gastroscopy. This work brings alternative endoscopic technologies closer to the