Magnetic continuum robots offer unique advantages for minimally invasive surgery owing to their flexibility, miniaturization, and remote actuation. However, the absence of reliable real-time force feedback in existing magnetically actuated catheters severely constrains safe interaction, quantitative identification of tissue mechanical properties. To address this limitation, this work presents a magnetic catheter robot with integrated dynamic force feedback. The proposed system integrates an axial optical force sensor, a miniaturized endoscope, and annular permanent magnets within a compact distal architecture. This design achieves sub-0.01 N force resolution while remaining robust under large bending deformations and varying deflection angles. System performance is quantitatively evaluated through force-controlled planar writing, 3D curved-surface palpation with shape perception and stiffness mapping, and endoscope-guided bronchial palpation, demonstrating reliable stiffness-based abnormality detection in complex luminal environments. These results demonstrate the feasibility of force-aware magnetic catheterization for quantitative assessment of local tissue mechanics, providing a clinically relevant platform for minimally invasive diagnostics.
Shen et al. (Wed,) studied this question.