2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
Karlsruhe, Germany, May 6-10, 2013
Kinematics for Continuum Robot of the Endoscope
Wu-Bin Cheng
Abstract— The endoscope system consists of a control hand
unit with valves and manoeuvrable bend section at the distal
end by turning two knobs from a control hand unit. An
accurate kinematic model for the relationships between motion
of the distal end and the control unit is essential for endoscopist
to control a motion of the tip navigating in the human organ
effectively. In this paper we introduce a new method for
modeling of kinematics for the distal end of the colonoscope in
the use of D-H (Denavit - Hartenberg) parameters when the
distal end of the colonoscope is taken as continuum robot, and
analyze the kinematic relationship between the motion of the
tip of the enodoscope and angular control from the control
hand unit. Our kinematical model plays an important role in
controlling the motion of the distal end accurately.
I. INTRODUCTION
Minimally invasive surgery is the greatest advance to the
art and science of surgery since Lister introduced antiseptic
techniques 150 years ago. By accessing anatomical targets
through a small incision with specialized tools, the clinical
benefits to patients are significant, less soft tissue disruption,
reduced pain and faster healing and recovery, and fewer
complications [1]. The colonoscope is the most effective
way to examine the colon and the distal part of the small
bowel against colorectal cancer with an increasing number of
patients undergoing endoscopic examination of the colon and
rectum for various purposes such as screening and
surveillance of colorectal cancer in the world [2]. Not only is
it a useful screening and diagnostic tool, but it also provides
the possibility for removing premalignant polyps. The
modern colonoscope system consists of a control head with
valves (buttons) for air insufflations and suction, a flexible
shaft (insertion tube) carrying the light guide and one or more
service channels, and maneuverable bend section at the tip.
An umbilical or universal cord (also called “light guide
connecting tube”) connects the colonoscope to the light
source and processor, air supply and suction. The distal
bending section (10 cm or so) and tip of the colonoscope is
fully deflectable, in both planes, up to 180 degrees or more.
Control depends upon pull wires attached at the tip just
beneath outs outer protective sheath, and passing back
through the length of the instrument shaft to the two
angulations control wheels (for up/down and right/ left
movement) on the control head. The endoscopist uses two
knobs for controlling tip bending in the “up-down” and the
“left-right” direction.
Cheng WB is with School of Mechanical and Power Engineering of East
China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai China
(corresponding author by e-mail: wuc182@gmail.com).
Zhang WJ is with School of Mechanical and Power Engineering of East
China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai China.
978-1-4673-5643-5/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE
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Wen-Jun Zhang
The articulated tip is composed of a series of hollows link
that are joined by revolute joints whose axes are sequentially
at right angles and skew. The links are hollow to provide a
conduit for internal components such as optical fibers, water
channel, air channel, and biopsy channel. The wires are
symmetrically attached to each link so by turning knob one
wire of the pair pulls and other pull an equal amount. The
deflective section is evenly distributed through the distal end
of the colonoscope [3]. Despite the colonoscopic procedures
is difficult and some novel designs have been advanced to
facilitate accurate, effective and safe colonoscopy [4, 5],
however the fundamental design of the colonoscope has not
changed much at all since its introduction [6].
Serial robots are essential for development of minimally
invasive surgery as it has been applying in navigation and
operation inside complex and curved anatomical
environment. In this paper we introduce a new method for
modeling of kinematics for the distal end of the endscope
based on D-H parameters in the use of serial robots, and
analyze the kinematic relationship between the motion of the
tip of the colonoscope and angular control from the control
hand unit.
II. KINEMATICAL MODELING
A. Forward Kinematical Analysis
Robotic manipulators are very practical for navigation
and operation inside anatomic environments in humans
during minimally invasive surgery due to their high degree of
freedom (DOF) and manoeuvrability, the most popular
designs utilize a backbone structure that is actuated by sets of
cables. Several previous studies on the continuum robot
modeling have already been proposed [7-12].
The distal end of the endoscope consists of front base,
rings, pivot pins, end of angulations wires, end base. Two
knobs on the hand control unit actuate bending motion of the
distal end. In this section we develop a kinematical model of
the distal end that has a two degree-of-freedom articulated
structure and bends in any direction using internal cables
actuated by knobs based on two assumptions: (1) self-weight
of articulated rings does not affect driving internal cables; (2)
twist angle between two articulated rings along the same
direction is equal. We define that !UD: twist angle of up-
down direction; !LR: twist angle of left-right direction. We
will analyze the forward displacement of the distal end of the
colonoscope based on Denavit-Hartenberg parameters (also
called D-H parameters). The D-H parameters are the four
parameters associated with a particular convention for
attaching reference frames to the links of a spatial kinematic
chain.
Jacques Denavit and Richard Hartenberg introduced this
convention 1955 in order to standardize the coordinate
frames for spatial linkages. Specific steps as follows:
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assigning the coordinate frames for each joint, then defining
four parameters of each joint and link by which forward
displacement determines the location of the terminal frame
relative to the base frame as the 4x4 homogenous
transformation matrix of Eq. (1).
(1)
In this paper, D-H coordinates of the distal end of the
colonoscope is established based on Craig’s method [7].
There are three different coordinates established for the base,
each ring and end of the distal end of the colonoscope
respectively as Fig. 1 shown. For these coordinates, x axis
of revolute joints are assigned along the length direction of
serial robot, z axis of revolute joints are aligned with the axis
of the ring, y axis of revolute joints are perpendicular to the
x-z plane.
Figure 1. Assigning coordinate systems {0}, {i} and {N}
Thus, there are four parameters for the coordinate {0} of the
base and the coordinate {1} of the first ring respectively: !0
= 0Èa0 = l/2Èd1 = 0È!1 = !UD ×here l= the length of each
ring. Let s! = sin!Èc! = cos!, then homogenous
transformation matrix from coordinate {0} to coordinate {1}
can be obtained as follows:
(2)
with the same principle, two coordinates of revolute joint i-1
and revolute joint i can be setup as Fig. 2 shown.
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Figure 2. Establishing coordinate systems {i-1} and {i} on joint i
At the beginning of this section, we have come up with
one assumption that twist angle between each two revolute
joints is equal, we have: !UD = !1 = !3 = … = !2k-1È!LR = !2
= !4 = … = !2k, thus four parameters between each two
revolute joints can be known.
Therefore, homogenous transformation matrix from
coordinate {i-1} to coordinate {i} can be obtained as Eq. (3),
consequently, the final homogenous transformation matrix
from base coordinate {0} to end coordinate {N} can be
obtained by multiplying each single as shown Eq. (4).
(3)
(4)
B. Reverse Kinematic Analysis
Given the fixed Denavit-Hartenberg parameters and the
terminal link location the reverse displacement analysis
determines the joint displacements. For the colonoscope
there are only two degree-of-freedoms which are specified
by two twist angles !UD and !LR. Thus it is necessary to
describe the terminal link location in a meaningful way with
only two independent parameters.
This eliminates specifying the terminal origin position or
the terminal frame orientation since these require three
parameters. However, it is advantageous to use two degrees-
of-freedom to specify the direction of the terminal link. This
is because an endoscopist is able to rotate !U and !LR through
knobs to control the motion of the distal end by adjusting the
length of driving cables. In this section, twist angles (!U and
!LR) and adjusted length f two driving cables can be
determined in terms of terminal link location based on the
reverse kinematic analysis. Given that the terminal link
vector p as well as unit vectors u v w of three axis xN, yN
and zN, the homogenous transformation matrix relative to
the base coordinate {0} is expressed as Eq. (5):

(5)

Combining the Eq. (4) and Eq.(5), the unique solution !UD
and !LR can be solved according to Eq. (6), however
solution only can be generated from the range [-"/2!"/2]

(a)
(6)

Adjusted length #lUD and #lLR of driving cables is able to

actuate the deflection of the distal end of the colonoscope,
which is described in Fig. 3, therefore twist angle !UD
between two revolute joints is changed with respect to the
length change #lUD of up-down driving cable (in red of Fig.
3) and twist angle !LR is adjusted regarding the length
change #lLR of left-right driving cable. Twist angles !UD and
!LR between two revolute joints are showed Fig. 4 (a). Fig.
4 (b) shows the geometrical scheme of driving cables of the
distal end.
(b)
Figure 4. (a) Cable position between revolute joint units; (b) Geometrical
scheme of length change of the driving cable

When the distal end bends along either up-down

direction or left-right direction, there exist twist angles !UD
or !LR between two revolute joints, thus the length of driving
cables would shrink AB' from the original AB. Let us define
the variation $AA'$= #l, the original $AB$= l0Èwe have Eq.
(7) Ö

(7)
(a)

Thus, the variation of driving cables #lUD and #lLR

corresponding to twist angles !UD and !LR can be calculated
by Eq. (8):

(8)

Where "0 represents the distance of driving cable 2 between

plane 1 and plane 2 along two revolute joints; "1 represents
(b) the distance of driving cable 1 between plane 1 and plane
Figure 3. (a) Bending angle !UD with respect to its length change #lUD; (b) along two revolute joints; x represents joint numbers on
Bending angle !LR with respect to its length change #lLR

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driving cable of controlling angle !UD; y represents joint where r1 , r2 is the radius of two pulleys respectively.
numbers on driving cable of controlling angle !LR
However, deformation of driving cables should be
considered as long as there exists the length change of
driving cables. Elongation of two cables can be determined
based on Hooke’s law, which is showed as Eq. (9):

(9)
Figure 5. Control principle diagram of control hand unit

IV. OPERATION SPACE ANALYSIS

where F1 and F2 are driving force of two cables respectively; The distal end of the colonoscope is a typical serial robot in
le is the length of driving cables; dw is the diameter of the which revolute joints and structures effect deflective angle
cable; E is Young’s modulus of cable property. of the tip. In this section, we select parameters in term of
Furthermore, in fact it is shown that the distal end of the mainstream model of the colonoscope in order to simulate
colonoscope is not decoupled with respect with the knob operation space of the distal end as Eq. (13) shows:
inputs [3], the tip bending is coupled such that turning the
“up-down” knob will generally also effect a “left-right”
motion vice versa, thus we also consider the coupled effect
between two different driving cables. (13)
Driving cable 1 and 2 in solid line is principle cable and
driving cable 3 and 4 in dash line is an effected cable. We
obtain the effected length change in terms of the geometrical
relationship as Eq. (10):
According to Eq. (2), Eq. (3) and Eq. (13), the original
distribution of the distal end relative to the base coordinate
(10)
of the colonoscope can be determined. Twisting angles !UD
and !LR can be solved in terms of the range of turning angle,
finally the operation space shows in Fig. 6.
where #lij"i!j=1!2#represent the length change of the
cable i effected by the cable j; l is the length of the joint.
Finally, length change #lUD' and #lLR' of driving cables
affected by two factors that are the elastic deformation and
coupling respectively can be obtained in Eq. (11):

(11)

III. KINEMATIC RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE CONTROL

HAND UNIT AND DEFLECTION OF THE DISTAL END

As Fig. 5 shows, Knob 1 and knob 2 are connected with

pulley 1 and pulley 2 respectively and driving cables of
controlling “up-down” or “left-right” motion are wound on
the pulleys. Turning each knob would change the length of
driving cables so that #lUD and #lLR can be controlled in
terms of desired motion. The relationship between twist
angles [!1, !2]T and adjusted length [#lUD, #lLR]T can be
expressed as Eq. (12):
(12)
Figure 6. Operation space of bending section of the colonoscope
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, kinematics of distal end of the
colonoscope is modeled and analyzed. On the first hand, the
distal end of the colonoscope is taken as a typical serial
robot, then we established coordinates for the base, joints,
and end part based on D-H parameters and the homogeneous
transformation matrix is derived from the base to the distal
end of the colonoscope; On the second hand, reverse
kinematics is analyzed given that terminal link location, i.e.
the relationship between joint space parameters !UD and !LR

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and driving space parameters #lUD and #lLR is derived. This
kinematic model for the relationships between motion of the
distal end and the control hand unit would help endoscopist
to control a motion of the distal end.

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