Enabling active locomotion and advanced features in capsule endoscopy

The aim of this work is to provide the electronics needed to control an endoscopic capsule robot and the electronics needed to enable active locomotion and advanced vision functions (like autofocus). Enabling such functions in a capsule will permit to perform screening, diagnosis and therapy of the gastrointestinal tract (GI) reducing the pain suffered by the patient. Such capsule robot has been designed in the framework of the “Versatile Endoscopic Capsule for Gastrointestinal Tumour Recognition and Therapy” (VECTOR) project. This project pursues the goal of realizing smart pill technologies and applications for GI diagnosis and therapy. The overall medical goal of the project is to enable medical devices through advanced technology that can dramatically improve early detection and treatment of GI early cancers and cancer precursors. The main technological objective of the project is the take-up of microsystems and sub-components and their integration into robotic, mobile pill devices for useful and large impact applications in the medical field.