US-12616818-B2 - Magnetic actuation system compatible with C-arm

US12616818B2US 12616818 B2US12616818 B2US 12616818B2US-12616818-B2

Abstract

Provided is a magnetic actuation system controlling a magnetic microrobot, a magnetic actuation catheter, or a guide wire by using a magnetic field, and more particularly, a magnetic actuation system compatible with a C-arm that is applied to the C-arm, which is a mobile X-ray fluoroscopy device, in order to enable control of the microrobot or a catheter treatment in a human body by using the C-arm.

Inventors

Hong Soo Choi
Hak Joon LEE
Jin Young Kim

Assignees

MIRACURE CO., LTD

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20231025
Priority Date: 20221026

Claims (20)

1 . A magnetic actuation system compatible with a C-arm that is positioned on the C-arm including a C-shaped arc body, a receiver positioned at one end of the arc body, a transmitter positioned at the other end of the arc body, and a treatment space positioned between the receiver and the transmitter, the system comprising: an electromagnet unit including a combination of one or more electromagnets and positioned between the transmitter and treatment space of the C-arm; and a power supply unit supplying a current to the electromagnet unit, wherein the electromagnet unit is disposed below the treatment space by generating a magnetic field or a magnetic force through the current supplied from the power supply unit, and actuates a magnetic robot, a magnetic actuation catheter, or a guide wire, including a magnetic body wirelessly, wherein the electromagnet unit is fixed to and supported by an external supporter positioned separately from the C-arm, and wherein each electromagnet of the electromagnet unit is inclined at an inclination angle with respect to a reference line, which is perpendicular to a ground, such that the inclination angle is same as an angle between the reference line and a traveling direction of an X-ray transmitted from the transmitter.
2 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising an auxiliary coil fixed to the receiver or transmitter of the C-arm and receiving the current from the power supply unit, wherein the auxiliary coil is disposed above the treatment space by generating the magnetic field or the magnetic force through the current supplied from the power supply unit, and actuates the magnetic robot, the magnetic actuation catheter, or the guide wire, including the magnetic body wirelessly.
3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the auxiliary coils are respectively positioned on the receiver and the transmitter.
4 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the auxiliary coil is positioned on the receiver or the transmitter, and has a shape corresponding to a shape of the receiver or a shape of the transmitter.
5 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the auxiliary coil has a circular, elliptical, or prismatic shape with a hollow part formed in a center of the auxiliary coil.
6 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the auxiliary coil is positioned on the receiver or the transmitter, and an X-ray generated from the transmitter passes through a hollow part formed in a center of the auxiliary coil.
7 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the electromagnet unit controls vectors of the magnetic robot, the magnetic actuation catheter, or the guide wire in three-dimensional directions (or X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis directions), and the auxiliary coil controls a vector in a vertical direction (or the Z-axis direction) to compensate for the magnetic field and magnetic force of the electromagnet unit in the vertical direction (or the Z-axis direction).
8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the electromagnet unit includes a plurality of electromagnets arranged radially based on a center of a plane while being spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance to form an X-ray movement space in the center.
9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the electromagnet has a central axis directed to a center of a plane, and is inclined toward the treatment space.
10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the electromagnet unit includes four or more electromagnets radially arranged.
11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the magnetic actuation system receives real-time position information of an actuation target through the C-arm and reflects the received information in controlling a position of the target.
12 . A magnetic actuation system compatible with a C-arm that is positioned on the C-arm including a C-shaped arc body, a receiver positioned at one end of the arc body, a transmitter positioned at the other end of the arc body, and a treatment space positioned between the receiver and the transmitter, the system comprising: an electromagnet unit including a combination of one or more electromagnets and positioned between the transmitter and treatment space of the C-arm; a power supply unit supplying a current to the electromagnet unit; and an auxiliary coil having a hollow portion in a center thereof and fixed to the receiver or transmitter of the C-arm and receiving the current from the power supply unit, wherein the electromagnet unit is disposed below the treatment space by generating a magnetic field or a magnetic force through the current supplied from the power supply unit, and actuates a magnetic robot, a magnetic actuation catheter, or a guide wire, including a magnetic body wirelessly, wherein the auxiliary coil is disposed above the treatment space by generating the magnetic field or the magnetic force through the current supplied from the power supply unit, and actuates the magnetic robot, the magnetic actuation catheter, or the guide wire, including the magnetic body wirelessly, and wherein an X-ray transmitted from transmitter passes through the hollow portion in the center of the auxiliary coil.
13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the auxiliary coil has a shape corresponding to a shape of the receiver or a shape of the transmitter.
14 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the auxiliary coil has a circular, elliptical, or prismatic shape.
15 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the electromagnet unit is fixed to and supported by the arc body, and has a position changed in conjunction with a rotational motion of the arc body.
16 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the electromagnet unit is fixed to and supported by an external supporter positioned separately from the C-arm to be maintained to be fixed during a rotational motion of the arc body.
17 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the electromagnet unit controls vectors of the magnetic robot, the magnetic actuation catheter, or the guide wire in three-dimensional directions (or X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis directions), and the auxiliary coil controls a vector in a vertical direction (or the Z-axis direction) to compensate for the magnetic field and magnetic force of the electromagnet unit in the vertical direction (or the Z-axis direction).
18 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the electromagnet unit includes a plurality of electromagnets arranged radially based on a center of a plane while being spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance to form an X-ray movement space in the center.
19 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the electromagnet has a central axis directed to a center of a plane, and is inclined toward the treatment space.
20 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the magnetic actuation system receives real-time position information of an actuation target through the C-arm and reflects the received information in controlling a position of the target.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2022-0138815, filed on Oct. 26, 2022, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD The following disclosure relates to a magnetic actuation system controlling a magnetic microrobot, a magnetic actuation catheter, or a guide wire by using a magnetic field, and more particularly, to a magnetic actuation system compatible with a C-arm that is applied to the C-arm, which is a mobile X-ray fluoroscopy device, in order to enable control of the microrobot or a catheter treatment in a human body by using the C-arm. BACKGROUND A microrobot or a catheter has been mainly developed as a means to effectively perform a medical task which is difficult for a human to directly perform, such as diagnosing a disease or delivering a drug by being inserted into a human body. An alternating magnetic field may be sometimes used to control the microrobot or the magnetic actuation catheter or a guide wire. In particular, a drilling motion using a rotating magnetic field of high magnetic density and high frequency may be sometimes used during a catheter treatment to open a clogged blood vessel in a blood vessel. A three-dimensional magnetic actuation system has been conventionally disclosed in which a plurality of electromagnetic coils generating a magnetic field are attached to a three-dimensional supporter, a work space for actuating a magnetic robot is formed in the center of the supporter, each electromagnetic coil receives a current from the outside, and a three-dimensional magnetic field and a magnetic force are applied to the magnetic robot positioned in the workspace in a wireless manner, thereby controlling the magnetic robot. However, the magnetic actuation system described above may use eight electromagnetic coils radially arranged in the work space while being spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance in order to apply the three-dimensional magnetic field and the magnetic force to the magnetic robot, thus having an external shape with a very large volume compared to the internal work space due to the plurality of coils, and consuming a lot of power to actuate the magnetic robot. In addition, the magnetic actuation system may have a sealed structure in which the plurality of electromagnetic coils are arranged outside the work space, and thus unable to be used with an medical imaging device such as a C-arm. Therefore, there is a need to develop a magnetic actuation system that has a small volume and applicable to (or compatible with) the imaging device such as the C-arm to thus utilize image information using the C-arm during actuation of the magnetic robot, the magnetic actuation catheter, or the guide wire. RELATED ART DOCUMENT Patent Document International Publication No. WO2018-030610 (published on Feb. 15, 2018) SUMMARY An embodiment of the present disclosure is directed to providing a magnetic actuation system compatible with a C-arm by being integrally provided with or separately combined with the C-arm. Another embodiment of the present disclosure is directed to providing a magnetic actuation system which may actuate a robot, a magnetic actuation catheter, or a guide wire by applying a three-dimensional magnetic field and a magnetic force to the robot, the magnetic actuation catheter, or the guide wire regardless of an alignment direction of a C-arm. Another embodiment of the present disclosure is directed to providing a magnetic actuation system which may control a three-dimensional movement of a robot with a minimum coil by combining an auxiliary coil and an electromagnetic coil with each other. In one general aspect, provided is a magnetic actuation system compatible with a C-arm that is positioned on the C-arm including a C-shaped arc body, a receiver positioned at one end of the arc body, a transmitter positioned at the other end of the arc body, and a treatment space positioned between the receiver and the transmitter, the system including: an electromagnet unit including a combination of one or more electromagnets and positioned between the transmitter and treatment space of the C-arm; and a power supply unit supplying a current to the electromagnet unit, wherein the electromagnet unit is disposed below the treatment space by generating a magnetic field or a magnetic force through the current supplied from the power supply unit, and actuates a magnetic robot, a magnetic actuation catheter, or a guide wire, including a magnetic body, in the wireless manner. The system may further include an auxiliary coil fixed to the receiver or transmitter of the C-arm and receiving the current from the power supply unit, wherein the auxiliary coil is disposed above the treatment space by generating the magnetic field or the magnetic force through the current supplied from the power supply