Magnetically Driven Soft Continuum Microrobot for Intravascular Operations in Microscale

Abstract

Remotely controlled soft continuum robots with active steering capability have broad prospects in medical applications. However, conventional continuum robots have the miniaturization challenge. This paper presents a microscale soft continuum microrobot with steering and locomotion capabilities based on magnetic field actuation. The magnetically driven soft continuum microrobot is made of NdFeB particles and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), and it can be as small as 200 μ m in diameter. Moreover, a hydrogel layer is covered on the surface of the microrobot, which not only overcomes the adhesion force between the microobjects and the soft tip but also reduces the friction between the microrobot and substrate. The performance test indicates the soft continuum microrobot featured excellent control and steering capabilities. The experimental results demonstrate that the soft continuum microrobot can travel through the microfluidic channel by its own vibration and flexibly steer in a bifurcation environment. Moreover, the micromanipulation of microbeads in the microfluidic channels proves that the proposed microscale soft continuum microrobot has a great potential for intravascular manipulation.

A review on microrobots driven by optical and magnetic fields

“…They can be actuated by permanent magnets, 163–165 electromagnetic coils, 166–168 or other different configurations of magnetic devices. 169–172 Moreover, both optical microrobots and magnetic microrobots need imaging equipment ( e.g. , microscope, high-resolution camera), computers, and a user interface to be controlled in given applications.…”

“…They can be actuated by permanent magnets, [163][164][165] electromagnetic coils, [166][167][168] or other different configurations of magnetic devices. [169][170][171][172] Moreover, both optical microrobots and magnetic microrobots need imaging equipment (e.g., microscope, high-resolution camera), computers, and a user interface to be controlled in given applications. Because of the small feature sizes, optical microrobots and magnetic microrobots are mainly fabricated using photolithography, two-photon polymerization, micromolding, metal deposition and other microfabrication techniques.…”

Amphibious Miniature Soft Jumping Robot with On‐Demand In‐Flight Maneuver

“…One of the major applications of miniature magnetic robots is the biomedical application because they can non-invasively access and navigate in difficult-to-reach areas inside the human body. [35][36][37][38][39][40][41] To date, agile magnetic soft robots with versatile locomotion modes have been developed, such as walking, swimming, crawling and rolling robots. [28,[42][43][44][45][46][47] The jumping motions of the magnetic robots are also achieved, for instance, a magneto-elastic millimeter-scale robot is developed that can jump over an obstacle by imparting impulsive impact on a solid surface through rapid shape change.…”

Stimuli-Responsive Functional Micro-/Nanorobots: A Review

“…Micro-/nanorobots, which are mobile robotic devices with microscale or nanoscale sizes, have currently drawn the attention of scientists. − They have tremendous benefits, including tiny size, wireless controllability, minimal invasiveness to the body, ability to target difficult-to-reach regions, good mobility in environments with low Reynolds numbers, and ease of transferring external energy to locomotion. Thus, they have been widely utilized in activities including drug delivery, − disease diagnosis, tissue regeneration, sensors, and environmental remediation. − …”