Soft ferromagnetic microrobot navigation in the cochlea using haptic assistance

Guiding magnetic particles through the cochlear canal in the human anatomy presents a challenge for disease treatment. Having the particularity of being operated remotely, magnetic particles are innovative solutions. However, the use of hard microrobots and the complexity of navigation in automatic mode present a real obstacle to the integration of these methods in the medical field. Faced with this, the choice of the actuation mode, the type of microrobot and the navigation strategy are therefore of paramount importance for guidance and navigation in the cochlear canal. For this, we have developed in this work a strategy of navigation and control of soft magnetic microrobot (biocompatible) using haptic assistance allowing to give all the control to the doctor. The navigation strategy is tested in an in-silico model based on the finite element method, then we use a human scale artificial cochlea to demonstrate the effectiveness of this strategy and the interest of integrating the doctor into the control loop.