Active bending device for flexible tube

Abstract

Abstract PURPOSE:To bent the whole of the external end of a lead wire actively in an optional shape by providing a bending angle command part and a shift command part which controls currents applied to shape memory allow materials of respective segments. CONSTITUTION:A control lever for tip direction control 22 and a control lever 23 for inserting operation are operated over a look at an image from a fiber scope 9. When a manual command is sent, it is led from an input/output device 20 to a microcomputer 21, which processes it and supplies the result to respective servo-units 181-18n and 19, so that the servo-unit 181 serves as a bending angle command part. The bending of a tip segment #1 is propagated to following segments #2-#n in order in synchronism with the moving speed of a body trunk 1, which moves while bent in the shape of the large intestine 14, so that the servo-units 182-18n become the shift command part. Consequently, the many segments can be bent actively.

Inventors

• 👤 Shigeo Hirose
• 👤 茂男 広瀬

Bibliographic Details