Enhanced High-Gain Observer for Blood and Micro-robot Velocity Estimation in Magnetic Drug Targeting

Abstract

Micro-robots have a promising prospect to be used in healthcare and bioengineering applications due to their capability to access hard-to-reach areas, allowing them to overcome the limitations of many conventional clinical methods. Controlling these micro-robots in blood vessels is an essential technology for several applications such as targeted drug delivery. One approach is to use a magnetic resonant navigation control strategy which allows precise manipulation of the micro-robot by adjusting the frequency and intensity of the magnetic field. The accuracy and robustness of this technique rely on the knowledge of some parameters such as blood and micro-robot velocities. In previous control designs, the blood velocity was assumed to be known and its pulse was supposed to be constant. This assumption did not reflect reality and reduced the feasibility of the control system. Considering this fact, this paper addresses the problem of estimating the velocity of the blood and micro-robot using an enhanced high-gain observer. Simulation results are carried out in MATLAB/Simulink to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed observer with comparisons to the standard high-gain observer.