Biomimetic Design and Experimental Methods Towards a Biologically Inspired, Soft Bodied, Peristaltic, Esophageal Swallowing Robot

Abstract

Natural and biological phenomena continue to be a strong source of inspiration in the robotics eld, as scientists and engineers aim to solve synonymous problems. The capabilities of traditional robots have seen signi cant development, where a new frontier into more soft and compliant actuation and sensation structures has seen recent exploration and the emergence of a new branch of research: soft-robotics. The intrinsic nature of these new technologies is that they are capable of soft and continuous interaction with their environment, which facilitates new actuation, transport, and locomotion modes. The main aim of this research initiative was to develop complementary actuation and sensation technologies, inspired by the esophageal phase of swallowing in man, to replicate biological swallowing. It is motivated by the di ering swallow capability of individuals, to understand swallow e cacy as a symptom mitigation method for patients su ering from dysphagia, di culty with safe swallowing. The peristaltic transport process in the esophagus has been previously investigated by a range of medical, mathematical, food scienti c, and engineering methods. However, each of these techniques has their own unique caveats. The processes of abstraction, speci cation, and subsequent conceptual development of a physical swallowing system external to the human body have taken these limitations as a set of input constraints. The swallowing robot and sensation technologies embody the interdisciplinary knowledge in this eld, and facilitate a complementary physical evaluation technique to augment and support the alternative avenues of investigation. This thesis examines the methods towards delivery of a soft, biomimetic, peristaltic, swallowing robot, consisting of actuation, trajectory generation, and sensation elements, to achieve clinically signi cant swallowing trajectories for the purpose of physical food bolus investigation external to the human body. By demonstrating the capability of these systems independently, and in their integrated nal state, the research provides a unique platform for biomimetic swallowing that brings the diverse knowledge from the medical, mathematical, food science, and engineering elds together. It presents new opportunities to investigate the relationships between these domains, towards developing foods, which exhibit intrinsic swallow safety in man.