Application of robotics in gastrointestinal endoscopy: A review

Table 1 Summary of currently available robotic flexible endoscopic platforms

Platforms	Development status
Robotic driven locomotion	FDA	CE	Sale
Electromechanical control of a conventional endoscope
Robotic steering and automated lumen centralization (RS-ALC) (Netherlands)	-	-	-
Endoscopic operating robot (EOR) (Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan)	-	-	-
Invendoscope (Invendo Medical Gmbh, Germany)	Y	Y	Y
Systems with elements of autonomous locomotion
Neoguide (Intuitive Surgical, United States)	Y	N	N
Aer-O-scope (GI View Ltd, Israel)	Y	Y	Y
Endotics (ERA Endoscopy SRL, Italy)	N	Y	Y
CUHK double -balloon endoscope (Chinese University of Hong Kong, China)	-	-	-
Robotic driven instrumentation
MASTER (EndoMASTER Pte, Singapore)	-	-	-
ISIS-Scope/STARS system (Karl Storz/IRCAD, Europe)	-	-	-
Endomina (Endo Tools Therapeutics, Belgium)	Y	-	Y
Scorpion shaped endoscopic robot (Kyushu University, Japan)	-	-	-
Viacath (Hansen Medical, United States)	Y	Y	Y
CUHK robotic gripper (Chinese University of Hong Kong, China)	-	-	-
Imperial College robotic flexible endoscope (Imperial College, United Kingdom)	-	-	-

Currently, all systems are either in experimental stage of development or early commercialization. As such, no data is available to assess cost effectiveness of various systems.