Early diagnosis of colorectal cancer substantially improves survival. However, over half of cases are diagnosed late due to the demand for colonoscopy—the ‘gold standard’ for screening—exceeding capacity. Colonoscopy is limited by the outdated design of conventional endoscopes, which are associated with high complexity of use, cost and pain. Magnetic endoscopes are a promising alternative and overcome the drawbacks of pain and cost, but they struggle to reach the translational stage as magnetic manipulation is complex and unintuitive. In this work, we use machine vision to develop intelligent and autonomous control of a magnetic endoscope, enabling non-expert users to effectively perform magnetic colonoscopy in vivo. We combine the use of robotics, computer vision and advanced control to offer an intuitive and effective endoscopic system. Moreover, we define the characteristics required to achieve autonomy in robotic endoscopy. The paradigm described here can be adopted in a variety of applications where navigation in unstructured environments is required, such as catheters, pancreatic endoscopy, bronchoscopy and gastroscopy. This work brings alternative endoscopic technologies closer to the translational stage, increasing the availability of early-stage cancer treatments.

结直肠癌的早期诊断可显着提高生存率。然而，由于结肠镜检查（筛查的“金标准”）的需求超出了容量，超过一半的病例诊断较晚。结肠镜检查受到传统内窥镜过时设计的限制，传统内窥镜的使用复杂性高、成本高且痛苦大。磁性内窥镜是一种有前途的替代方案，克服了疼痛和成本的缺点，但由于磁性操作复杂且不直观，它们很难达到转化阶段。在这项工作中，我们使用机器视觉开发磁性内窥镜的智能和自主控制，使非专家用户能够有效地在体内进行磁性结肠镜检查。我们结合机器人技术、计算机视觉和先进控制的使用，提供直观有效的内窥镜系统。此外，我们定义了机器人内窥镜实现自主性所需的特征。这里描述的范例可用于需要在非结构化环境中导航的各种应用，例如导管、胰腺内窥镜检查、支气管镜检查和胃镜检查。这项工作使替代内窥镜技术更接近转化阶段，增加了早期癌症治疗的可用性。