Robotic Brain Catheter
I'm my Masters research, I had the opportunity to work researching minimally invasive alternatives to open brain surgery to access the deep brain vasculature at the CHARM Lab.
Aneurysms, stroke, and other diseases in the brain can be reached and treated using catheters that are guided through the vascular system. However, one of the largest challenges is limited reach because they must be pushed and steered from outside the body. Magnetically steered brain micro-catheters could enable enhanced manipulation of the catheter tip. We studied the use a single permanent magnet to apply both force and torque in order to steer micro-catheters in deep brain vasculature. As a scaled proof of concept, we attached a cylindrical magnet to a micro-catheter tip and applied force and torque using an external actuator magnet controlled by a three-degree-of-freedom planar robot. Analysis of the resulting deflection and curvature of the micro-catheter tip demonstrated increasing deflection with coupled force and torque control.
Figure 1. Envisioned catheter navigation in arteries. At left, angiographic image of brain arteries shows the complexity of the brain vasculature. At the right, the micro-catheter is steered by an external magnet that induces deflections at the tip.
Figure 2. Arrangement of magnets to maximize magnetic field and magnetic forces and torques. (A) This model considers only applying a force at catheter tip, (B) This model considers combined magnetic torques and forces to deflect the micro-catheter tip.
Figure 3. Experimental set-up: (A) Micro-catheter bonded to magnet. (B) Top view demonstrating interaction between the micro-catheter and the actuator magnet. (C) Front view of experimental setup, where the actuator magnet is co-planar with the micro-catheter.