抄録
A capsule endoscope is recently developed for the observation of the digestive system because digestive diseases particularly cancers very frequently occur and became fatal. Despite many advantages, the capsule endoscope has some limitations in the diagnosis, since it only moves passively by the peristaltic motion of the intestine. In order to overcome this problem, locomotive functions are expected to the capsule endoscope. In this study, we report a mechanical crawler system mimicking the pedal locomotion of snails for such a capsule endoscope. The crawler we developed has four joints, five segments and two suction cups. In locomotion experiments on a horizontal plane and on an inclined plane of 10 degrees, we confirmed that the developed crawler could locomote at the speed of 3 mm/s.
