Yukun Ge

Yukun Ge is a dual-degree master student in Innovative Design Engineering at Imperial College London and Royal College of Art. In 2020, he graduated from Beijing University of Technology with a major in Industrial Design, and went to the University of Nottingham as an exchange student in Human-Computer Interaction.

Yukun's main research interests are origami robotics, soft robotics and bionic structures. In 2021, he joined the Morph Lab of Dyson School of Design and Engineering, and his main research directions are origami robots and tactile sensors.

In February 2022, his research "Origami Inspired Design for Capsule Endoscope to Retrograde Using Intestinal Peristalsis" was published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Volume 7, Issue 2 and at the 2022 IEEE 5th International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), April 4-8, Edinburgh.

40 per cent of the worldwide population suffers from chronic gastrointestinal problems. Endoscopy is currently the most effective screening method for gastrointestinal diseases such as colorectal cancer, polyps, inflammatory bowel disease, etc. Emerging capsule endoscopy can examine organs such as the small intestine that are difficult to access with traditional endoscopes. And compared to traditional endoscopy, capsule endoscopy is painless, less risky, and less expensive.

However, because the capsule endoscope is very small, the battery capacity is limited, there is no propulsion system and cannot be controlled. This results in a single function and a high rate of missed lesions.

To solve this problem. ORCA was designed, which is a capsule endoscope with a special origami structure. When the origami structure is folded, the capsule endoscope is propelled forward by intestinal peristalsis. When the origami structure is unfolded, the intestinal peristalsis squeezes the origami structure to drive the capsule endoscope to move in the opposite direction.

It moves passively by peristalsis of the intestines, so it consumes no electricity while moving. Only when the direction of movement needs to be changed, a micro-motor is needed to compress or stretch the origami structure, which consumes very little energy.

Because ORCA is a controllable capsule, doctors can move it anywhere, so missed diagnoses can be avoided. It also provides the possibility for small bowel biopsy and drug delivery.

ORCA has a special origami structure. When the origami structure is folded, ORCA is propelled forward by intestinal peristalsis. When the origami structure is unfolded, the intestinal peristalsis squeezes the origami structure to drive ORCA to move in the opposite direction.

ORCA can be connected to the doctor’s laptop via Bluetooth Low Energy if the patient needs to stay in the hospital. The data such as images recorded by the capsule will be uploaded to a special APP for analysis.

Rendering & Prototyping.

A simple experimental setup was designed to initially test the retrograde distance that different origami structures (3D printed with TPU material) are propelled by peristalsis.

We conducted a preliminary simulation of the structure’s movement in the small intestine. It can be seen from the snapshot that intestinal peristalsis pressure has a significant impact on the movement efficiency of the structure, and the greater the pressure, the faster the movement speed.

We conducted a set of experiments to test the behaviour of the proposed origami structure in a simulated intestine. We found that the folded origami structure moves in the opposite direction to the unfolded origami structure. Although the direction of the peristaltic wave was back and forth in the experiment, the peristaltic wave from left to right hardly moved the folded origami structure, just as it could not move the unfolded origami structure.

This research has published in February 2022 in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (Volume 7, Issue 2) and at IEEE International Conference On Soft Robotics ( April 4-8, 2022, Edinburgh).

Article Link:

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9730084

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359105927_Origami_Inspired_Design_for_Capsule_Endoscope_to_Retrograde_Using_Intestinal_Peristalsis

PDF: Origami Inspired Design for Capsule Endoscope to Retrograde Using Intestinal Peristalsis