Magnetic actuation and guidance mechanism for active capsule endoscope

Abstract

We propose a magnetic actuation and guidance mechanism for design of an active capsule endoscope. A permanent magnet acts as a seed, which is actuated and guided by multiple coils placed outside the human body. The basic idea is that the magnetic seed is subject to a force and a torque in a magnetic field. An efficient computation scheme is designed and implemented to calculate the coil currents for real-time actuation. Simulations are performed on a six-coil actuation system to evaluate the method. As an alternative method, an internal actuator consisting of a permanent magnet and a solenoid, which can propel itself forward under an alternating current, is introduced to increase the mobility of the capsule and decrease the demand for a strong external field. The external guiding magnetic field is also simulated to orient the internal actuator.