Investigation of a cuboidal permanent magnet’s force exerted on a robotic capsule

Abstract

To control and drive a robotic capsule accurately from outside a patient’s body, we present a schema in which the capsule enclosing the imaging device, circuits, batteries, etc is looped by a permanent magnet ring that acts as an actuator. A cuboidal permanent magnet situated outside the patient’s body attracts or pushes the magnet ring from different directions to make the capsule move or rotate. A mathematic model of attractive or repulsive force that the cuboidal magnet exerts on the magnet ring is presented for accurate calculation of force. The experiments showed that the measuring force was in agreement with the theoretical one, and the relations between the dimensions of the cuboidal magnet and force are useful to produce a cuboidal magnet with optimal shape to get appropriate force.

Keywords:

• control and drive
• robotic capsule
• permanent magnet ring
• optimal dimension
• force model

Acknowledgments

This project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 61202196, 61202195), the China Scholarship Council, Key Project of Sichuan Education Department (grant 12ZA200), Yibin Scientific and Technological Project (grant 2013ZSF010), and also by the doctoral fund of Yibin University (grant 2011B06).

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.