title: Micromachines in endoscopy.
abstract: Conventional endoscopy has reached a plateau in technical development, necessitating the exploration of bold new ideas in order to make further advances. One such idea is a self-navigating, independent, intelligent colonoscopic micro-robot. The design of a vehicle that can negotiate the difficult and hostile terrain of the colon is a complex task. Options include wheeled or tracked vehicles and pneumatically driven devices. The development of navigation and lesion recognition software to drive such a vehicle is also challenging. The various mathematical concepts involved in the development of such software are explored in this article.
authors.affiliation: National University Hospital, Singapore.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Goh
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Krishnan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020685:Colonoscopes; D003113:Colonoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004867:Equipment Design; D004869:Equipment Safety; D006801:Humans; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity