needle steering is a technology for guiding needles around sensitive internal obstacles in minimally invasive surgery. traditional techniques apply rotation at the base of a needle with an asymmetric tip, enabling steering through the redirection of radial forces. Magnetic steering of catheters and continuum manipulators is another technology that allows steering of a shaft in the body. Both of these techniques rely on mechanical or manual shaft advancement methods. needle steering has not achieved widespread clinical use due to several limitations: 1-buckling and compression effects in the shaft and needle rotation cause excessive tissue damage; 2-torsion effects on the shaft and needle deflection at tissue boundaries lead to difficulty in control; and 3-restricted radius of curvature results in limited workspace. Magnetically steered catheters and continuum manipulators also suffer from limited curvature and the possibility of buckling. This paper proposes a novel needle steering method empowered by electromagnetic actuation that overcomes all of the aforementioned limitations, making it a promising option for further study toward healthcare applications. Needles are among the least invasive surgical tools available to doctors and surgeons. The wound caused by a needle is easily and quickly repaired by the body and is, therefore, the preferred method of administering or drawing liquids to or from the body. Inflexible needles can only reach a target just under the skin, and not one protected by bone or sensitive tissues. However, needles with flexible, long shafts can be steered around these internal anatomies. The benefits of the ability to tightly steer around sensitive or protective internal obstacles can be seen in several medical applications. This ability is especially significant during treatment of glioblastoma, where tumors can develop and extend into sensitive tissues such as venous sinuses, the brain stem, or deep cerebellar nuclei. These obstacles frequently prevent the ability to locally deliver drugs, and can even render resection impossible 1. Thus, the treatment of deeply embedded cancerous tumors in the brain via a compartmental therapy approach, specifically but not limited to Convection-Enhanced Delivery (CED), characterizes a specific clinical application where needle steering with very tight curvature would be highly effective. CED is a targeted drug delivery technique to treat various conditions in the brain. This technique uses a pressure gradient to deliver pharmaceuticals more successfully across the blood-brain barrier 2. Another application where tight needle steering would provide clinical benefits is in radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of liver tumors. In RFA, a tumor or other target tissue is thermally destroyed by heat induced by high frequency alternating current, applied at the end effector of a small electrode 3. This technique is often hindered by the maneuverability of the ablation needle; Adebar et al. specifically pointed out the need for tighter needle steering in order to tar...

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