Study on rotational and unclogging motions of magnetic chain-like microrobot

Magnetic microrobotics was nowadays one of the most advanced technique to reach deep locations in human body for future biomedical applications. Different magnetic microrobot designs were proposed, such as bead pulling or microswimmers. In this paper, the use of chain-like of magnetic N-microspheres was investigated to enable new kind of motions and applications. An accurate theoretical model of chain-like magnetic microbeads navigating in viscous fluidic environments is described. Thus, the behavior of such microrobot was analyzed for different number of microspheres (ranging from N = 2 to 5). The efficiency of the proposed technique was demonstrated experimentally in a microfluidic vessel phantom to mimic atherosclerosis disease leading to plaque formation that fully occluded a vasculature.