On the Swimming of a “Pod ”

A “pod” is a medical device consisting of a small hollow magnet attached to a plastic “tail”. If it is placed in a blood vessel of a patient, and an alternating magnetic field applied, the magnet oscillates angularly and the plastic tail causes it to swim. The purpose of the device is to deliver medicaments, which may have been placed in the hollow magnet, or perform other tasks at any desired location in the main circulatory system. This paper seeks to analyse the swimming process and suggest design characteristics for efficient swimming. The analysis can also be regarded as a contribution to the general theory of swimming of elastic bodies excited by an external force.