Force sensing with analog-to-digital conversion

An apparatus comprising:

• a controller;
• a flexible elongate device comprising one or more bending segments, each bending segment being configured to bend, rotate, or translate by pulling or pushing a set of a plurality of drive wires;
• an actuator device having a plurality of driving portions, each drive wire being connected to a driving portion, each driving portion comprising a driving source, a force sensor, a coupling portion, a drive wire being connected to the coupling portion, and the coupling portion being connected to the force sensor and the driving source;
• one or more analog to digital converter (ADC),
• wherein the force sensor is configured to generate an analog force signal in response to a force in each drive wire of the set of the plurality of drive wires,
• wherein the analog force signals of the set of the plurality of drive wires are transferred to one ADC, the one ADC being configured to convert the analog force signals to digital force signals, the digital force signals being serially communicated to the controller,
• wherein the controller drives the driving sources based on the digital force signals.