Tiny Magnetic Robot Mechanism and Manipulation for Stent Transportation and Installation

Magnetic spiral-type microrobots, which are driven by a rotating magnetic field, have excellent locomotive abilities, whereas their medical applications are limited in the terms of function, such as the ability to drill in blood vessels. In this study, we propose a new robot with superior applications using a magnetic spiral-type machine. The proposed robot can be applied to stent transportation and installation without a catheter. In particular, the robot can be applied to the cardiovascular system, cerebrovascular disease, and nonvascular stent applications depending on the robot size. The robot consists of two independent spiral-type machines and four magnets in total. We controlled directions of thrust force of the two machines, respectively, for active locomotion with a task. We conducted a preliminary validation of the proposed robot for stent transportation and installation through experimental analyses.