Research on Coaxial Control of Magnetic Spiral-Type Capsule Endoscope

Abstract

In this paper, a novel method of controlling the wireless capsule endoscope (WCE) is proposed. The WCE is coated with a magnetic shell wounded by a spiral structure. The external permanent magnet (EPM) provides coaxial control to the magnetic spiral-type WCE. According to this control method, the maximum and minimum control distances between the EPM and WCE are theoretically analyzed and simulated by electromagnetic software, and the corresponding measured values are 276.3 mm, 87.1 mm, respectively. In experiments, the WCE's stable translational velocity can reach 32.9 mm/s. It indicates that this method is of good control performances and has great potential to be used in the future real clinical applications.

Magnetically Actuated Capsule Robots: A Review

“…Using magnetic torque drive is a way to avoid this problem. The researchers propose using a single rotating magnet [33], [86] or group of Helmholtz coils [87]- [89] to generate a rotating magnetic field to drive a spiral capsule robot. As shown in Fig.…”

“…In a variety of studies, many methods of actuating capsule robot have been proposed, such as electric motor actuation [26]- [28], electrical stimulation actuation [29], electrothermal actuation [30], [31], magnetic actuation [32], [33] and so on. Among them, magnetic actuation is considered to be the most promising method because of its simple response structure in the capsule body and the advantages of external power supply [13], [34].…”

Closed-loop active control of the magnetic capsule endoscope with a robotic arm based on image navigation

“…With the advancement of technology, there has been significant improvement in the performance of WCE for satisfactory clinical applications [5][6][7]. At the beginning of the diagnosis process, the WCE's movement in the intestine is achieved by its gravity and the peristalsis of the GI tract, and then it is discharged from the body in 6-8 h. The lesions are accurately diagnosed based on the information captured by the camera installed in the WCE [8,9]. Although the use of WCE enables the painless diagnosis of GI diseases, WCE has disadvantages such as low pixel, passive operation mode, uncontrollable, unable to provide active control, and consumes a significant amount of time [10].…”

“…In order to find a potential solution to these issues, our previous work [9] proposed a magnetic control method to control the motion of the magnetic capsule endoscope (MCE). The method mainly uses a stepping motor to drive the EPM to generate a rotating magnetic field.…”