Fetoscopy is a technically challenging surgery, due to the dynamic environment and low diameter endoscopes often resulting in a limited field of view. In this paper, we report on the design and operation of a robotic multimodal endoscope with optical ultrasound and white light stereo camera. The manufacture and control of the endoscope is presented, along with large area (80 mm ×80 mm) surface visualisations of a placenta phantom using the optical ultrasound sensor. The repeatability of the surface visualisations was found to be 0. 446 ± 0.139 mm and 0. 267 ± 0.017 mm for a raster and spiral scan, respectively.

A novel fluidic actuation system has been developed for in situ imaging of anatomic tissues. The actuator consists of a micromachined superelastic tool guide driven by a pair of pneumatic artificial muscles. Two additional working channels allow easy interchange of instruments or sensing equipment. This paper describes the design and construction of the actuation system. Experimental results are also reported indicating a bending repeatability of 0.1 degrees and an operational bandwidth exceeding 8Hz. To show-case the performance of the device, the actuator was loaded with an all-optical ultrasound imaging probe. First scanned images of human placental tissue surface using an all-optical ultrasound probe are presented. While a model has been developed to estimate the probe position in space as function of the input pressure, in future work, this model will be complemented with additional sensor measurements of the bending probe taking into account the hysteretic behaviour of both muscles and nitinol structure.