Sawtooth head helical magnetic robots to improve drilling performance for robotic endovascular intervention

Abstract

Helical magnetic robots driven by an external magnetic field have been extensively studied for robotic endovascular intervention to treat occlusive vascular disease. Most previous researchers have utilized cone-shaped head helical magnetic robots (CHMRs) with helical blades for thrombus drilling. However, the CHMR may become stuck in the thrombus or drilling performance may be significantly reduced after the cone-shape head enters the thrombus. We propose a sawtooth head helical magnetic robot (SHMR) to improve drilling performance. Furthermore, the pitch length of the SHMR was optimized experimentally. Finally, improved drilling performance of the SHMR compared to CHMR was verified by in vitro drilling experiments with a pseudo thrombus containing 0.8 wt. %, 1.0 wt. %, and 1.2 wt. % agar.