Miniaturized Magnetic Tip Design for Endoluminal Vine Robot Navigation

Minimally invasive surgery relies on tools that can access deep into delicate anatomy without causing harm, but traditional rigid instruments often struggle in these environments. Soft‐growing, or “vine” robots, minimize tissue stress by extending from the tip instead of translating. However, their continuously changing tip material makes steering while carrying distal payloads such as cameras or sensors challenging. This work introduces a 7 mm soft‐growing robot with a permanent magnet‐based tip mount for wireless magnetic steering while preserving a 3 mm internal channel for tool deployment. The compact internal–external ring magnet (IRM–ERM) assembly accommodates a 1 mm RGB camera and 0.5 mm LED for live imaging. A systematic design study balanced growing pressure, P g ≈ 20 kPa, and magnetic attachment force, F ≈ 0.3 N, across magnet geometries and separations, achieving stable operation. Workspace analysis demonstrated ±90° magnetic steering at varied lengths, and a 34 mm bending radius. Five target areas in the upper bronchial tree of a phantom were reached in an average of 35 ± 13 s per bifurcation. Compared with recent studies, this millimeter‐scale platform combines miniaturization, magnetic control, onboard visualization, and working channel preservation. The selected steerable magnetic tip mount advances compact, multifunctional systems for endoluminal navigation.