Towards advanced motion control systems for micro-scale magnetic drillers inside viscoelastic media

Abstract

Microrobotic systems have the potential to reach regions of the body with significantly less invasiveness than conventional surgical tools. However, control over clinically relevant workspaces remains challenging due to limitations in magnetic field and robotic trajectory control. Here, we present a planar eight-solenoid magnetic field generator (MFG) that enables programmable velocity and heading of a 250 × 250 × 1250 µm3 microscale driller through continuous field reorientation within a workspace of 20 × 20 × 20 cm3. The microscale driller achieved velocities up to 155 µm/s in 0.6 weight percent agarose gel, which mimics the mechanical properties of brain tissue, and executed turns beyond 90° with angular errors below 3°. These results demonstrate a scalable platform for precise and remote control of magnetically embedded microdevices, and support future development of minimally invasive systems for applications such as targeted therapeutic delivery and microsurgery.