Proposal for capsule-type medical device for stomach inspection with magnetically driven swimming mechanism

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel capsule-type medical device for stomach inspection. The capsule has a swimming mechanism composed of combined permanent magnets and an elastic film. External magnetic field can drive the swimming mechanism and navigate the capsule to the target position of the stomach. In this study, three kinds of operation modes have been evaluated. The first is a straight movement mode in which the capsule moves in the horizontal direction by applying AC magnetic field. The second is a tilting mode in which the capsule tilts in any direction by applying DC magnetic field. The third is a sinking mode in which the capsule can move in the vertical direction by applying AC magnetic field biased with DC magnetic field. The evaluation results suggest that proposed method can be applicable to the stomach inspection.