Evolving from Laboratory Toys towards Life-Savers: Small-Scale Magnetic Robotic Systems with Medical Imaging Modalities

Abstract

Small-scale magnetic robots are remotely actuated and controlled by an externally applied magnetic field. These robots have a characteristic size ranging from several millimetres down to a few nanometres. They are often untethered in order to access constrained and hard-to-reach space buried deep in human body. Thus, they promise to bring revolutionary improvement to minimally invasive diagnostics and therapeutics. However, existing research is still mostly limited to scenarios in over-simplified laboratory environment with unrealistic working conditions. Further advancement of this field demands researchers to consider complex unstructured biological workspace. In order to deliver its promised potentials, next-generation small-scale magnetic robotic systems need to address the constraints and meet the demands of real-world clinical tasks. In particular, integrating medical imaging modalities into the robotic systems is a critical step in their evolution from laboratory toys towards potential life-savers. This review discusses the recent efforts made in this direction to push small-scale magnetic robots towards genuine biomedical applications. This review examines the accomplishment achieved so far and sheds light on the open challenges. It is hoped that this review can offer a perspective on how next-generation robotic systems can not only effectively integrate medical imaging methods, but also take full advantage of the imaging equipments to enable additional functionalities.

Design and Control of the Magnetically Actuated Micro/Nanorobot Swarm toward Biomedical Applications

“…Swimming micro/nanorobots can be designed to carry out various tasks that macroscopic robots cannot, which renders them more possibility to be applied in various fields, [1] including iatrology, [2][3][4][5][6] biology, [7,8] environment science, [9][10][11] and nanotechnology. [12,13] Especially in iatrology, these micro/nanorobots are expected to access hard-to-reach areas of the human body in a minimally invasive manner, such as the circulatory system, gastrointestinal tract, vasculature, brain, and eyes, [3,[14][15][16] resulting in the promising potential of micro/nanorobots for various biomedical applications, including targeted drug delivery, [17,18] cancer treatment, [19,20] diagnosis and monitoring, [21,22] minimally invasive surgery, [23,24] and tissue engineering.…”

A Fast Soft Continuum Catheter Robot Manufacturing Strategy Based on Heterogeneous Modular Magnetic Units

“…Small-scale soft magnetic robots, with the advantages of good controllability, rapid response, and safety, were widely investigated [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ], especially regarding their great prospects in biomedical applications [ 7 , 8 ], such as targeted drug delivery and minimally invasive surgery. Specifically, magnetic soft robots can be divided into untethered and tethered types.…”

Design and Fabrication of a Magnetic Actuator for Torque and Force Control Estimated by the ANN/SA Algorithm

“…Magnetic actuators are also implemented in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMSs) such as micropumps [11], stable grasping [12], pick-and-place system [13], small force sensing [14], contactless delivery [15], and microsurgery [16]. Microsurgery can provide a minimally invasive surgery environment and offer benefits such as lower infection risk, fewer medical complications, and faster rehabilitation [17,18]. Bioengineering combined with the small-scale (millimeter and sub-millimeter) wireless robots manipulated via the magnetic field can potentially modernize the medical field [19] by replacing the current devices with safer alternatives that enable surgeons to access fragile organs such as the eye, heart, and brain to perform more precise and less invasive operations.…”