Stomach Simulator for Analysis and Validation of Surgical Endoluminal Robots

Abstract

A testing environment that imitates gastric geometry and contractile activity is necessary to analyse and validate endoluminal surgical robotic devices developed for gastric pathologies. To achieve this goal, a silicone stomach model and a mechanical setup to simulate gastric contractile motion were designed and fabricated. The developed stomach simulator was validated and its usefulness was demonstrated by means of internal pressure measurements and self-assembly tests of mock-ups of capsule devices. The results demonstrated that the stomach simulator is helpful for quantitative evaluation of endoluminal robotic devices beforein-vitro/in-vivoexperiments.