An insertion apparatus includes an insertion section, a rotational housing, a motor, and a controller. The motor rotates the rotational housing. The controller designates a rotational direction of the motor. The controller limits the rotational direction of the motor to allow the insertion section to move only in a removal direction when inspection control for inspecting an operation relative to an insertion direction of the insertion section is initiated.

A manipulator and a manipulator system adjust the initial tension easily yet unerringly during assembling. The manipulator includes a main unit, an elongated portion that extends from the main unit, a distal end that is connected to the elongated portion, a wire for transmission of power for putting the distal end into actuation, a drive unit for generation of power to the wire, a rotary unit which is located in the main unit, around which the wire is wound and which is rotated by the drive unit, and an elastic unit for connecting the wire to the rotary unit.

A system for determining the shape of a surgical instrument includes an elongate instrument body having a selectively steerable distal tip, a pair of automatically controlled segments proximal to the selectively steerable distal tip, and a joint that couples the pair of adjacent automatically controlled segments together. An actuator changes an angle of the joint and a position encoder provides information associated with the joint angle. A controller receives the information associated with the angle of the joint and generates a three dimensional model of a shape of the instrument. A method for determining the three dimensional shape of an instrument includes providing axial position data to a controller, providing angular position data to the controller from a respective segment controller, and generating a three-dimensional model of a shape of said instrument using the axial position data and the angular position data.

An attachment unit rotates in directions around a longitudinal axis with respect to an insertion main body when rotary drive force is transmitted from a drive force transmission unit provided to an insertion section, and allows propulsive force in one of directions parallel to the longitudinal axis to act on the insertion section by rotating in contact with a paries. The attachment unit includes a fin portion which is spirally extended along the longitudinal axis and whose dimension from the longitudinal axis to an outer peripheral end vary in accordance with how external force different from the propulsive force acts in the directions parallel to the longitudinal axis in a state that the attachment unit does not rotate with respect to the insertion main body.

The introducing apparatus comprises the operating section, which is easy to grip and easy to operate, mounted therein by providing the dial of the operation element to perform a bending operation of the bending section and a part of the rotary mechanism alone while avoiding an operation range of the operating section for fingers of a gripping hand.

An endolumenal robotic system provides the surgeon with the ability to drive a robotically-driven endoscopic device to a desired anatomical position in a patient without the need for awkward motions and positions, while also enjoying improved image quality from a digital camera mounted on the endoscopic device.

A system and method of repositioning a region of interest within an endoscopic image from a first location to a target location on the display screen of an endoscopy system is provided. The endoscopy system includes an insertion portion having a tip section with at least one viewing element for capturing images of a body cavity having the region of interest. The method includes detecting a region of interest within a body cavity, displaying the region of interest on a display screen in communication with the endoscopy system, marking the region of interest on the display screen, selecting a target location on the display screen, estimating a transformation to be applied to the region of interest, and applying the estimated transformation for causing the region of interest to be displayed at the target location of the display screen.

A medical manipulator is provided with: a drive unit provided with a motor; a removable portion that is removably attached to the drive unit and that is provided with a rotating body to be connected to a rotating shaft of the motor; an elongated insertion portion coupled to the removable portion; a distal-end movable part disposed at a distal end of the insertion portion; a wire connecting the rotating body and the distal-end movable part and transferring tension generated by power of the motor to the distal-end movable part to actuate the distal-end movable part; a pressing member that is formed of an elastic material and that presses a longitudinal intermediate position of the wire in the wire diameter direction; and a sensor that is attached to the pressing member and that detects an elastic deformation amount caused in the pressing member according to the tension of the wire.

An insertion apparatus includes an insertion section, a motor that rotates a rotational housing, a drive control unit that supplies a driving current to the motor to control driving of the motor, a driving current detector that detects the driving current flowing through the motor, a torque limit value storage unit that stores a torque limit value, a temperature detector detects a temperature of the rotational housing, a temperature measurement unit that measures a temperature in a vicinity of the rotational housing based on a detection result obtained from the temperature detector, and a torque limit value correction unit that corrects the torque limit value in accordance with the temperature measured by the temperature measurement unit.

An insertion apparatus includes an insertion section, a motor that rotates a rotational housing, a drive control unit that supplies a driving current to the motor to control driving of the motor, a temperature detector provided in the rotational housing, that detects a temperature of the rotational housing, a temperature measurement unit that measures a temperature in a vicinity of the rotational housing based on a detection result obtained from the temperature detector, a heating element used for heating, and a heating control unit that controls the heating element to perform heating when a measurement result of the temperature measurement unit is lower than a predetermined temperature.