Research On Micro-pipe Robot Driven By External Magnetic Field

Gastrointestinal tract is the body's vital organs. Because of the complexity of its environment, compared with other organs, the gastrointestinal tract is more susceptible to disease. For the gastrointestinal tract examination, the usual method is intubating endoscope and non-cable-style capsule endoscopy. The main disadvantage of the former relies on external force to enter into the gastrointestinal tract. This method easily damages tissue and organ and causes patients uncomfortably and painfully. The latter is the natural peristalsis through the gastrointestinal tract, which conducts inspection through body and eventually excretes. Disadvantage of this method is out of control to observe process. It requires longer checking time. The blind spots and capsule retention may exist.In order to achieve the active capsule endoscopy-driven, in this paper, an approach of direct external uniform gradient-driven by magnetic field is researched. Micro-pipe robot body is capsule robot that is embedded with Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet. Helmholtz coils and the Maxwell coils are orthogonal combination in space. A combination of coil drives micro-pipe robot. By adjusting current of coil and the transformation of coil spatial location and the location of pipelines translation, those jointly form gradient force and magnetic torque to effectively complete the driver action required. Author use this magnetic field-driven approach, which has simple structure. The driving force and speed is controlled. It has high security and can examine key positions and so on.In this paper, principle of the formation of uniform and gradient magnetic field is analyzed. Driving mechanism of micro-pipe robot is analyzed. Magnetic field of the drive coil is simulated. The micro-pipe robot body was designed. Author built the experimental equipment needed for micro-pipe controlled system. Finally, experiment test and verify performance of the micro-pipe robot motion. Experimental results show that micro-pipe robot has good motion performance to achieve the translational motion and space posture adjustment. It has good controllability.