Magnetic Microrobotics for Biomedical Applications

David Folio

Abstract

This research work mainly focuses on the study of the modeling and control of microrobotic systems in a biomedical context. So far, the use of magnetic actuation has been regarded as the most convenient approach for such achievements. Besides, the cardiovascular system allows to reach most parts of the human body and is then chosen as the main navigation route. This original topic is a rapidly expanding field whose ambition is to modernize current therapies by trying to improve therapeutic targeting while improving patient comfort. To achieve this goal, a good understanding of how microrobots evolve in the human body is an important step. The theoretical foundations and the physical laws that make it possible to describe the various phenomena which act on magnetic microrobots in vascular-like environments have thus been deeply studied. Methodologies for dealing with multiphysics approaches combining different sources of hypotheses and uncertainties have been developed. Great care has been taken in their validations by experimentation when possible, otherwise by numerical analysis. This helps to better understand the dominant dynamics, as well as the predominant parameters in the description of magnetic microrobots in a vascular-like environment. This makes it possible to efficiently characterize and predict their behaviors in a viscous flow and their responses to magnetic fields. On this basis, advanced navigation strategies have been developed. The navigation process can be divided into two stages. First, safe and efficient navigation paths are planned (off-line) based on the fast marching method (FMM). With the proposed navigation planning framework, different constraints and objectives can then be taken into account to obtain a truly feasible reference path. Second, control schemes that drive the magnetic microrobots along the planned reference path to the targeted location are synthesized. To do so, predictive and optimal control laws have been implemented. All the proposed models and navigation strategies have been evaluated through various experiments under different conditions with the platforms developed at the PRISME Laboratory.

Habilitation overview

In December 2021,I defended my Habilitation (in French “Habilitation à diriger des recherches” – HDR) in microrobotics. The title of my research work was “Magnetic Microrobotics for Biomedical Applications” [5]. This manuscript summarizes my teaching and research activities since my recruitment as an associate professor in 2008.
Summarizing thirteen years of hard work is a valuable exercise. It provides an opportunity to reflect and identify the common thread that has motivated my personal and professional pursuits. It is important to acknowledge that these endeavors were the result of collaborative efforts, whether with colleagues, co-authors, or students under my supervision. However, it is challenging to account for all the achievements so far, and I had to make some choices while writing my dissertation. Although other works are equally appealing, I aimed to maintain consistency in the manuscript. Specifically, in the second part, I focused on my primary scientific contributions concerning magnetic microrobots that navigate through the cardiovascular system for biomedical applications.

My research focus on modeling and controlling of microrobotic systems in a biomedical context, as one illustrated in Figure 1. Different research groups are working to develop solutions that can be applied to the human body. So far, magnetic actuation has emerged as the most suitable approach for these applications [3], [11], [15]. The field of this original theme is still in progress with the ambition of modernizing current therapies by improving therapeutic targeting while enhancing patient comfort. To achieve this goal, it is important to have a good understanding of the microrobots that evolve in the human body [15], [21]. The theoretical foundation and physical laws governing magnetic microrobots in vascular-like environments were studied [1], [2], [4], [6]–[9], [12], [14]. A methodology was developed to handle multiphysics approaches that combine different sources of uncertainties and hypotheses [13]. The validations were carefully conducted through experiments or numerical analysis when necessary. This help us to better understand the overriding dynamics, as well as the predominant parameters in the description of magnetic microrobots in a vascular-like environment. This makes possible to fully characterize their behaviors in a viscous flow and their responses to magnetic fields.
All of these helped us to propose advanced navigation strategies for our microrobots [10], [16]–[20]. Our navigation process can be divided in two levels. First, we plan (off-line) really feasible navigation paths based on the FMM. With the proposed navigation planning framework, we can take into account different constraints and objectives to get a really feasible reference path. Second, we synthesized control schemes that drive the magnetic microrobots along the reference to the targeted location. To this aim, we have chosen to implement predictive control and optimal control laws.
All of our proposed models and navigation strategies were then evaluated through various experiments in different conditions. To do so, various proof-of-concept platforms were developed within the PRISME Laboratory and through our collaborations. To further extend the magnetic actuation capability, we have also extensively studied the design of electromagnetic systems. These EMA platforms that meet properly the specifications of the biomedical operation would produce magnetic fields and gradients more suited to the needs. This knowledge allowed us to build the OctoRob platform.

Habilitation Details

I obtained my Habilitation in Robots Control from University of Orleans (France) on December 3, 2021, which was entitled: “Magnetic Microrobotics for Biomedical Applications: Modeling, Simulation, Control and Validations” [5].

Manuscript: D. Folio’ Habilitation thesis (view )
Slides: D. Folio’ Habilitation defense slides (view )

Defended

the 3^rd December 2021

Committee

President	Chantal Pichon (Prof. des Université, Orléans)
Reviewers	Michaël Gauthier (DR, CNRS, FEMTO-ST, Besançon) Sylvain Martel (Prof. Polytechnique Montréal, Canada) Philippe Poignet (Prof. des Universités, Univ. Montpellier)
Examiners	Christine Prelle (Prof. des Universités, UTC) Mohammed Samer (Prof. des Universités, Univ. Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne) Li Zhang (Prof., Dept. MAE, CUHK, Hong Kong)
Guarantor	Antoine Ferreira (Prof. des Universités, INSA Centre Val de Loire)

References

[1]

Folio D. and Ferreira A., “Modeling and estimation of self-phoretic magnetic janus microrobot with uncontrollable inputs,” IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 2681–2688, November 2022. doi:10.1109/tcst.2021.3139192

[2]

Wu J., Folio D., Zhu J., Jang B., Chen X., Feng J., Gambardella P., Sort J., Puigmarti-Luis J., Ergeneman O., Ferreira A., and Pane S., “Motion analysis and real-time trajectory prediction of magnetically steerable catalytic janus micromotors,” Advanced Intelligent Systems, vol. 4, no. 11, p. 2200192, September 2022. doi:10.1002/aisy.202200192

[3]

Chen R., Folio D., and Ferreira A., “Analysis and Comparison of Electromagnetic Microrobotic Platforms for Biomedical Applications,” Applied Sciences, from Micro-Robotics, vol. 12, no. 1, p. 456, January 2022. doi:10.3390/app12010456

[4]

Mellal L., Folio D., Belharet K., and Ferreira A., “Modeling and characterization of deformable soft magnetic microrobot for targeted therapy,” IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 8293–8300, October 2021. doi:10.1109/lra.2021.3107102

[5]

Folio D., “Magnetic microrobotics for biomedical applications: Modeling, simulation, control and validations,” Habilitation thesis, University of Orleans, Bourges, France, 2021 [Online]. Available: http://dfolio.fr/hdr/

[6]

Sarkis B., Folio D., and Ferreira A., “Catalytic tubular microjet navigating in confined microfluidic channels: Modeling and optimization,” Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 333–343, April 2018. doi:10.1109/JMEMS.2018.2803803

[7]

Mellal L., Folio D., Belharet K., and Ferreira A., “Modeling approach of transcatheter arterial delivery of drug-loaded magnetic nanoparticles,” in The Encyclopedia of Medical Robotics, WORLD SCIENTIFIC, 2018, pp. 207–229. doi:10.1142/9789813232280_0010

[8]

Jang B., Wang W., Wiget S., Petruska A., Chen X., Hu C., Hong A., Folio D., Ferreira A., Pané’ S., and Nelson B., “Catalytic locomotion of core-shell nanowire motors,” ACS Nano, vol. 10, no. 11, pp. 9983–9991, October 2016. doi:10.1021/acsnano.6b04224

[9]

Mellal L., Folio D., Belharet K., and Ferreira A., “Modeling of optimal targeted therapies using drug-loaded magnetic nanoparticles for liver cancer,” IEEE Transactions on NanoBioscience, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 265–274, May 2016. doi:10.1109/tnb.2016.2535380

[10]

Mellal L., Folio D., Belharet K., and Ferreira A., “Optimal control of multiple magnetic microbeads navigating in microfluidic channels,” in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA’2016), 2016, pp. 1921–1926. doi:10.1109/icra.2016.7487338

[11]

Mellal L., Folio D., Belharet K., and Ferreira A., “Magnetic microbot design framework for antiangiogenic tumor therapy,” in IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS’2015), 2015, pp. 1397–1402. doi:10.1109/IROS.2015.7353550

[12]

Sarkis B., Folio D., and Ferreira A., “Catalytic tubular microjet propulsion model for endovascular navigation,” in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA’2015), 2015, pp. 3537–3542. doi:10.1109/ICRA.2015.7139689

[13]

Belharet K., Folio D., and Ferreira A., “Simulation and planning of a magnetically actuated microrobot navigating in arteries,” IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 60, no. 4, pp. 994–1001, April 2013. doi:10.1109/TBME.2012.2236092

[14]

Belharet K., Chunbo Y., Folio D., and Ferreira A., “Model characterization of magnetic microrobot navigating in viscous environment,” in International Symposium on Optomechatronic Technologies (ISOT’2013), 2013.

[15]

Folio D., “Endovascular navigation of magnetic microcarriers using a MRI system.” Presented in the Workshop on Magnetically Actuated Multiscale Medical Robots, Vilamoura, Algarve, Portugal, October-2012.

[16]

Belharet K., Folio D., and Ferreira A., “Control of a magnetic microrobot navigating in microfluidic arterial bifurcations through pulsatile and viscous flow,” in IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS’2012), 2012, pp. 2559–2564. doi:10.1109/IROS.2012.6386030

[17]

Belharet K., Folio D., and Ferreira A., “Untethered microrobot control in fluidic environment using magnetic gradients,” in International Symposium on Optomechatronic Technologies (ISOT’2012), 2012, pp. 1–5. doi:10.1109/isot.2012.6403290

[18]

Dahmen C., Folio D., Wortmann T., Kluge A., Ferreira A., and Fatikow S., “Evaluation of a MRI based propulsion/control system aiming at targeted micro/nano-capsule therapeutics,” in IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS’2012), 2012, pp. 2565–2570. doi:10.1109/iros.2012.6386244

[19]

Belharet K., Folio D., and Ferreira A., “Three-dimensional controlled motion of a microrobot using magnetic gradients,” Advanced Robotics, vol. 25, no. 8, pp. 1069–1083, January 2011. doi:10.1163/016918611X568657

[20]

Belharet K., Folio D., and Ferreira A., “3D MRI-based predictive control of a ferromagnetic microrobot navigating in blood vessels,” in IEEE RAS and EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob’2010), 2010, pp. 808–813. doi:10.1109/biorob.2010.5628063

[21]

Belharet K., Folio D., and Ferreira A., “Endovascular navigation of a ferromagnetic microrobot using MRI-Based predictive control,” in IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS’2010), 2010, pp. 2804–2809. doi:10.1109/IROS.2010.5650803

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Citation

BibTeX citation:

@phdthesis{folio2021,
  author = {Folio, David},
  publisher = {University of Orleans},
  title = {Magnetic {Microrobotics} for {Biomedical} {Applications}},
  date = {2021-12-03},
  address = {Bourges, France},
  url = {https://dfolio.fr/publications/thesis/folio2021hdr.html},
  langid = {en},
  abstract = {This research work mainly focuses on the study of the
    modeling and control of microrobotic systems in a biomedical
    context. So far, the use of magnetic actuation has been regarded as
    the most convenient approach for such achievements. Besides, the
    cardiovascular system allows to reach most parts of the human body
    and is then chosen as the main navigation route. This original topic
    is a rapidly expanding field whose ambition is to modernize current
    therapies by trying to improve therapeutic targeting while improving
    patient comfort. To achieve this goal, a good understanding of how
    microrobots evolve in the human body is an important step. The
    theoretical foundations and the physical laws that make it possible
    to describe the various phenomena which act on magnetic microrobots
    in vascular-like environments have thus been deeply studied.
    Methodologies for dealing with multiphysics approaches combining
    different sources of hypotheses and uncertainties have been
    developed. Great care has been taken in their validations by
    experimentation when possible, otherwise by numerical analysis. This
    helps to better understand the dominant dynamics, as well as the
    predominant parameters in the description of magnetic microrobots in
    a vascular-like environment. This makes it possible to efficiently
    characterize and predict their behaviors in a viscous flow and their
    responses to magnetic fields. On this basis, advanced navigation
    strategies have been developed. The navigation process can be
    divided into two stages. First, safe and efficient navigation paths
    are planned (off-line) based on the fast marching method (FMM). With
    the proposed navigation planning framework, different constraints
    and objectives can then be taken into account to obtain a truly
    feasible reference path. Second, control schemes that drive the
    magnetic microrobots along the planned reference path to the
    targeted location are synthesized. To do so, predictive and optimal
    control laws have been implemented. All the proposed models and
    navigation strategies have been evaluated through various
    experiments under different conditions with the platforms developed
    at the PRISME~Laboratory.}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Folio D., “Magnetic Microrobotics for Biomedical Applications,” Habilitation, University of Orleans, Bourges, France, 2021 [Online]. Available: https://dfolio.fr/publications/thesis/folio2021hdr.html