MRI-based Imaging and Tracking of an Untethered Ferromagnetic Microcapsule Navigating in Liquid

Christian Dahmen (1) , Karim Belharet (2) , David Folio (3) , Antoine Ferreira (3) , Sergej Fatikow (1)

1 Division Microrobotics and Control Engineering
2 IRAUS - Département Images, Robotique, Automatique et Signal [Orléans]
3 INSA CVL - Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - Centre Val de Loire

The propulsion of ferromagnetic objects by means of MRI gradients is a promising approach to enable new forms of therapy. In this work, necessary techniques are presented to make this approach work. This includes path planning algorithms working on MRI data, ferromagnetic artifact imaging and a tracking algorithm which delivers position feedback for the ferro-magnetic objects and a propulsion sequence to enable interleaved magnetic propulsion and imaging. Using a dedicated software environment integrating path-planning methods and real-time tracking, a clinical MRI system is adapted to provide this new functionality for controlled interventional targeted therapeutic applications. Through MRI-based sensing analysis, this paper aims to propose a framework to plan a robust pathway to enhance the navigation ability to reach deep locations in human body. The proposed approaches are validated with different experiments.

Mots clés: path planning; visual tracking; Microrobotics; MRI-based sensing; navigation

Domaines: Automatique / Robotique; Imagerie

Christian Dahmen, Karim Belharet, David Folio, Antoine Ferreira, Sergej Fatikow. MRI-based Imaging and Tracking of an Untethered Ferromagnetic Microcapsule Navigating in Liquid. International Journal of Optomechatronics, 2016, 10 (2), pp.73-96. ⟨10.1080/15599612.2016.1166305⟩. ⟨hal-01305963v2⟩