External Steering of Vine Robots via Magnetic Actuation

This article explores the concept of external magnetic control for vine robots to enable their high curvature steering and navigation for use in endoluminal applications. Vine robots, inspired by natural growth and locomotion strategies, present unique shape adaptation capabilities that allow passive deformation around obstacles. However, without additional steering mechanisms, they lack the ability to actively select the desired direction of growth. The principles of magnetically steered growing robots are discussed, and experimental results showcase the effectiveness of the proposed magnetic actuation approach. We present a 25-mm-diameter vine robot with an integrated magnetic tip capsule, including 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) localization system and camera, and demonstrate a minimum bending radius of 3.85 cm with an internal pressure of 30 kPa. Furthermore, we evaluate the robot's ability to form tight curvature through complex navigation tasks, with magnetic actuation allowing for extended free-space navigation without buckling. The suspension of the magnetic tip was also validated using the 6 DOF localization system to ensure that the shear-free nature of vine robots was preserved. Additionally, by exploiting the magnetic wrench at the tip, we showcase preliminary results of vine retraction. The findings contribute to the development of controllable vine robots for endoluminal applications, providing high tip force and shear-free navigation.