Development of an MRI-powered robotic system for cryoablation.

This study proposes a novel MRI-powered robotic system controlled with the magnetic field generated by a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. In the proposed system, we use an MRI-powered actuator unit proposed in the previous study and a spherical positioning mechanism. The actuator unit contains a ferromagnetic sphere, which acts as a power source and is used to control the positioning unit inside the MRI environment. These elements enable the development of a remote needle tip positioning system for use within the MRI scanner. Potential applications of the developed system include the automation of procedures during under MRI inspections, especially the cryoablation of breast cancer. In this paper, we report on the performance evaluation and the MR-safety of the proposed system and describe the newly developed spherical positioning mechanism, which can be activated by the actuator units.

Development of MRI-powered modular robotic system.

This study proposes a novel robotic system controlled by the magnetic forces generated from Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner. In the proposed system, ferromagnetic particles are used to actuate the device, while all other parts are made of nonmagnetic materials. The possible range of motion for the particles is investigated by using the common sequence which is usually available for MR imaging. We then designed a mechanism that extends the observed pendular motion to rotational movement. By using the designed mechanism, we realized a MRI-powered multiaxial robotic system. The potential application of this system covers the automation for under MRI inspections such as esthesiometry and needle biopsy. In this paper, we described the fundamental principle of the MRI-powered robotic system and also report on the performance evaluation of the robotic system.