Soft material adhesion characterization for in vivo locomotion of robotic capsule endoscopes: Experimental and modeling results

A nondimensional model for the normal adhesion response between a flat, cylindrical probe with a smooth polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface and synthetic biological tissue is presented. The adhesion response is characterized as a function of critical design parameters (pre-load, Fpre, dwell time, tdwell, separation rate, vsep) for robotic capsule endoscope (RCE) mobility. Future work will focus on the effects of a micropattern pillar PDMS surface and a mucosal fluid layer between the PDMS surface and the synthetic biological tissue.168