Title :
Motion planning for multiple millimeter-scale magnetic capsules in a fluid environment
Author :
Vartholomeos, Panagiotis ; Akhavan-Sharif, M. Reza ; Dupont, Pierre E.
Author_Institution :
Cardiovascular Surg., Children´´s Hosp. Boston, Harvard Med. Sch., Boston, MA, USA
Abstract :
There are many examples of minimally invasive surgery in which tethered robots are incapable of accurately reaching target locations deep inside the body either because they are too large and result in tissue damage or because the tortuosity of the path leads to loss of tip control. In these situations, small untethered magnetically-powered robots may hold the potential to act as delivery vehicles for therapeutic agents. While MRI scanners provide a means to power, control and image such robots as they move throughout the body, a substantial challenge arises if the clinical application requires more than one such robot. The resulting system is underactuated and thus its controllability is in question. This paper presents a simple motion planning algorithm for two magnetic capsules and demonstrates through simulation and experiment that nonlinear fluid damping can be exploited to independently control the positions of the capsules.
Keywords :
biological tissues; biomedical MRI; controllability; damping; drug delivery systems; fluid dynamics; medical robotics; microrobots; mobile robots; path planning; position control; surgery; MRI scanners; clinical application; drug delivery applications; fluid environment; minimally invasive surgery; motion planning algorithm; multiple millimeter-scale magnetic capsules; nonlinear fluid damping; path tortuosity; position control; target locations; tethered robots; therapeutic agents; tip control; tissue damage; untethered magnetically-powered robots; Fluids; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic separation; Magnetomechanical effects; Planning; Robots; Saturation magnetization;
Conference_Titel :
Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2012 IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Saint Paul, MN
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-1403-9
Electronic_ISBN :
1050-4729
DOI :
10.1109/ICRA.2012.6225330