Evolutionary design of magnetic soft continuum robots
Name
e2021922118.full.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
2.79 MB
Format
Unknown
Checksum (MD5)
c29f43b91113453e32f75a435617c9cc
Author(s)
Wang, Liu
Zheng, Dongchang
Harker, Pablo
Patel, Aman B.
Guo, Chuan Fei
Zhao, Xuanhe
Date Issued
May 2021
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Citation
Wang, Liu, Zheng, Dongchang, Harker, Pablo, Patel, Aman B, Guo, Chuan Fei et al. 2021. "Evolutionary design of magnetic soft continuum robots." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118 (21).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Worldwide cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and heart disease are the leading cause of mortality. While guidewire/catheter-based minimally invasive surgery is used to treat a variety of cardiovascular disorders, existing passive guidewires and catheters suffer from several limitations such as low steerability and vessel access through complex geometry of vasculatures and imaging-related accumulation of radiation to both patients and operating surgeons. To address these limitations, magnetic soft continuum robots (MSCRs) in the form of magnetic field–controllable elastomeric fibers have recently demonstrated enhanced steerability under remotely applied magnetic fields. While the steerability of an MSCR largely relies on its workspace—the set of attainable points by its end effector—existing MSCRs based on embedding permanent magnets or uniformly dispersing magnetic particles in polymer matrices still cannot give optimal workspaces. The design and optimization of MSCRs have been challenging because of the lack of efficient tools. Here, we report a systematic set of model-based evolutionary design, fabrication, and experimental validation of an MSCR with a counterintuitive nonuniform distribution of magnetic particles to achieve an unprecedented workspace. The proposed MSCR design is enabled by integrating a theoretical model and the genetic algorithm. The current work not only achieves the optimal workspace for MSCRs but also provides a powerful tool for the efficient design and optimization of future magnetic soft robots and actuators.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2021922118
