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US 12,733,797 B2Granted
Rigidity control apparatus, endoscope system, and rigidity control method
AssigneeOlympus Medical Systems Corp.
InventorsSho Nakamura, Sayuri Yamamoto
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A rigidity control apparatus includes a processor and controls a variable-rigidity apparatus. The variable-rigidity apparatus includes a variable-rigidity member, flexural rigidity of which increases when the variable-rigidity member is heated, and a heater configured to be able to heat the variable-rigidity member. The processor calculates information about temperature of the heater, and estimates information about temperature of the variable-rigidity member based on the information about the temperature of the heater.
Claims13
A rigidity control apparatus comprising:
- a processor comprising hardware and configured to control a variable-rigidity apparatus, the variable-rigidity apparatus including a variable-rigidity member, a flexural rigidity of the variable-rigidity apparatus increases when the variable-rigidity member is heated, and a heater separate from the variable-rigidity member and configured to generate heat upon being supplied with electric power and to thermally heat the variable-rigidity member,
- wherein the processor is further configured to:
- calculate temperature information of the heater based on information obtained from the heater, and
- estimate temperature information of the variable-rigidity member based on the temperature information of the heater wherein the processor is configured to estimate the temperature information of the variable-rigidity member using a heat conduction model.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.