A Dexterous Endoluminal Robot with a Novel Wiring Method

We introduce a five degree-of-freedom continuum endoluminal robot that mitigates the trade-off between maneuverability and operational stiffness in confined workspaces. A segmented backbone actuated via a cable-and-pulley architecture enables differential stiffness modulation: the proximal segment remains highly compliant for navigation, while the distal segment exhibits increased effective stiffness, providing improved operational stability once the target is reached. The prototype robot tracks canonical trajectories with a mean endpoint error of 3.8 mm, maintains a prescribed standoff distance within ±0.4 mm during wall-following, and exhibits increased distal stiffness of approximately 30 N/m versus 20 N/m proximally.