Design and Control of a Magnetically-Actuated Capsule Robot With Biopsy Function

Objective: Wireless capsule endoscopy has been well used for gastrointestinal (GI) tract diagnosis. However, it can only obtain images and cannot take samples of GI tract tissues. In this study, we designed a magnetically-actuated biopsy capsule (MABC) robot for GI tract diagnosis. Methods: The proposed robot can achieve locomotion and biopsy functions under the control of external electromagnetic actuation (EMA) system. Two types of active locomotion can be achieved, plane motion refers to the robot rolling on the surface of the GI tract with a rotating uniform magnetic field. 3D motion refers to the robot moving in 3D space under the control of the EMA system. After reaching the target position, the biopsy needle can be sprung out for sampling and then retracted under a gradient magnetic field. Results: A pill-shaped robot prototype (φ15 mm×32 mm) has been fabricated and tested with phantom experiments. The average motion control error is 0.32 mm in vertical direction, 3.3 mm in horizontal direction, and the maximum sampling error is about 5.0 mm. The average volume of the sampled tissue is about 0.35 mm3. Conclusion: We designed a MABC robot and proposed a control framework which enables planar and 3D spatial locomotion and biopsy sampling. Significance: The untethered MABC robot can be remotely controlled to achieve accurate sampling in multiple directions without internal power sources, paving the way towards precision sampling techniques for GI diseases in clinical procedures.