The Feasibility of an Internal Mechanism for Capsule Endoscopy Locomotion and Retention-Release

The passive movement of capsule endoscopy has geared research to investigate the possibility of developing a locomotion mechanism to allow the control of the capsule movement. The size and the power capacity of capsule endoscopy have been the main bottlenecks to achieve an efficient locomotion design. Running a locomotion device for a long time it seems to be impossible without the utilization of an external magnetic field that has been found to be unsafe for human risks. A short utilization of a locomotion mechanism, which is controlled from outside the capsule, could solve the problems of size and power capacity limitations. The short utilization of the simplified design could solve a major risk of capsule endoscopy which is capsule retention. This paper is set out to investigate the feasibility of developing an internal capsule retention release mechanism to solve the problem of capsule endoscopy retention. This includes the design and configuration of new capsule model to mount the proposed locomotion system. Two types of motors were tested in this paper; these are a two-phase stepper motor and a coin-type vibration motor. The design of the printed circuit board (PCB) of the nRF51×822 was reconfigured to fit within the small dimensions of the new model. The operation performance of both motors using a limited power source has been recorded which show that the proposed design is able to work efficiently for a limited time. However, a number of steps need to be undertaken to realize the feasibility of the new design for practice which includes testing in an animal or a fabricated model that allow for peristaltic movement similar to the human GI tract movement.