Optimal trajectory for a microrobot navigating in blood vessels

Abstract

The chemotherapy magnetically controlled under Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is currently one of the active areas of cancer research. This paper proposes a precise model of a therapeutic microrobot magnetically steered in blood vessels. This modeling approach takes into account the non-Newtonian behavior of blood, as well as wall effect on the blood's profile and robot-to-wall interaction forces. A backstepping approach law is used to ensure a null error between the real trajectory and an optimal reference trajectory deduced from the highly nonlinear model. The strengths and limitations of the overall study are evaluated by simulations.