Resonating magnetic manipulation for 3d path-following and blood clot removal using a rotating swimmer

There are many design trade-offs when building a magnetic manipulator to control millimeter-scale rotating magnetic swimmers for surgical applications.For example, increasing the magnitude of the flux density generated by the magnetic manipulator increases the torque applied to the swimmer, which could enable performing a wider variety of surgical tasks in the future. However, producing stronger magnetic fields has drawbacks, such as increased active power usage.To produce a quickly rotating field, EMs must be quickly charged and discharged. This results in a low power factor (high reactive power used in comparison with the active power). Adding capacitors in series with the electromagnets improves the power factor because the capacitors can provide reactive power. With this method, larger flux densities can be produced without necessitating an increase of the apparent power delivered by the power supplies.This paper highlights the benefits of using capacitors for the magnetic manipulation of rotating swimmers. Rotating swimmers can be used to remove blood clots. The clot removal rate of resonating magnetic manipulators is measured using a realistic blood clot model. This paper also presents a control method for the currents inside the electromagnets that enable 3D navigation without current sensing.