MagNeed - Needle-Shaped Electromagnets for Localized Actuation Within Compact Workspaces
Juan J. Huaroto, Michiel Richter, Mafalda Malafaia, Jayoung Kim, Chang-Sei Kim, Jong-Oh Park, Jakub Sikorski, Sarthak Misra
Abstract
Electromagnetic actuation of micro-/milli-sized agents has traditionally relied on large electromagnets positioned at considerable distances from the agents. As a result, the electromagnets consume kilowatts of power to overcome the limited generation of magnetic field gradients. Miniaturized electromagnets offer an alternative approach for reducing power consumption via localized actuation of micro-/milli-sized agents. Typically, the generation of magnetic field gradients in the vicinity of a miniaturized electromagnet is comparable with traditional electromagnetic actuation systems. Miniaturized electromagnets can be positioned near target sites in microfluidic channels or <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ex vivo</i> vasculatures. Thereby, localized trapping and actuation of magnetic micro-/milli-sized agents are carried out. This study introduces MagNeed – an electromagnetic actuation system composed of three needle-shaped electromagnets (NSEs). MagNeed can determine compact workspaces by positioning the NSEs at different spatial configurations. Each NSE generates magnetic field gradients (up to 3.5 T/m at 5 mm from the NSE tip axis) while keeping a maximum power consumption (0.5 W) and temperature ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$< $</tex-math></inline-formula> 42 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{\circ}$</tex-math></inline-formula> C). MagNeed is complemented by a framework that reconstructs the pose of the NSEs. Experiments test MagNeed and framework on a transparent Teflon tube (5 mm inner diameter). MagNeed demonstrates localized trapping and actuation of a 1 mm NdFeB bead against a flow of water and silica gel particles (1–3 mm diameter).
BibTeX
@inproceedings{ral2023_magneedneedlesha,
title = {MagNeed - Needle-Shaped Electromagnets for Localized Actuation Within Compact Workspaces},
author = {Juan J. Huaroto and Michiel Richter and Mafalda Malafaia and Jayoung Kim and Chang-Sei Kim and Jong-Oh Park and Jakub Sikorski and Sarthak Misra},
booktitle = {RA-L 2023},
year = {2023}
}