Magnetic Soft Microfiberbots for Robotic Embolization: A Collaborative Breakthrough by Professors from HUST, SJTU, and USTC

Recently, Professor Zang Jianfeng and Professor Tao Guangming from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Academician Yang Guangzhong from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Professor Wang Liu from the University of Science and Technology of China collaborated to design a magnetically controlled microfiber robot. Their findings were published in Science Robotics, a journal in the Science family, under the title"Magnetic Flexible Microfiber Robots for Robotic Vascular Embolization"（Magnetic soft microfiberbots for robotic embolization）。

It is understood that the robot is made of helical microfibers composed of hard-magnetic soft composite materials, which are subjected to thermal stretching and magnetization treatments. Due to its unique helical magnetization characteristics,The robot is capable of deformation and motion independent of external magnetic field control, enabling high-speed movement against blood flow and independent control of multiple microfiber robots.

Experiments conducted by the research team on ex vivo multi-branched vascular models and in vivo rabbit femoral artery models further demonstrated its feasibility and efficiency in vascular navigation and embolization, offering new perspectives for minimally invasive vascular embolization therapy.

Traditional endovascular interventions are performed under X-ray guidance, requiring operators to wear lead aprons for protection. However, these aprons do not provide comprehensive shielding, easily leading to physician fatigue and compromising surgical quality. Furthermore, traditional procedures rely on manual manipulation, which is prone to errors, lacks standardization, and requires years of training. Therefore, there is an urgent demand for robotic systems for endovascular interventional surgery.

To date, research on vascular interventional robots has mainly fallen into two categories: those that manipulate specialized endovascular interventional devices and those that operate general commercial off-the-shelf endovascular interventional devices.

The former primarily utilizes magnetic control (magnetic navigation) or specialized interventional devices to accomplish the procedure.. Due to their small size and ability to access hard-to-reach lesions via minimally invasive approaches, magnetized microrobots have become a focal point in medical research and development.

In 2022, Xuanhe Zhao, an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), developed a magnetically controlled remote neurovascular interventional surgical robot system. This system is capable of navigating freely through narrow and tortuous pathways, such as human cerebral blood vessels, thereby facilitating the reversal of cerebrovascular occlusions and helping to prevent permanent brain damage.

In 2023, a team from the Center for Intelligent Bionics at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the Department of Neurosurgery at South China Hospital affiliated with Shenzhen University, proposed a magnetic interventional guidewire robot system featuring magnetically driven active steering and autonomous propulsion capabilities. This system enables physicians to remotely manipulate the magnetic guidewire to rapidly select the correct path at complex vascular bifurcations and reach the target site, thereby effectively reducing radiation exposure.

Meanwhile, researchers from ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich, and Aarau Cantonal Hospital have developed a screw-shaped robot that can be rotated by external magnets to propel itself forward for the treatment of post-stroke patients.

The latter, in contrast, involves integration with artificial intelligence, the internet, and big data., enabling real-time intraoperative calibration, registration, and navigation. For instance, Cathworks Ltd. (Kfar Saba, Israel) leverages angiography-based fractional flow reserve; during interventional procedures, the integration of computer vision, 3D reconstruction, and computational fluid dynamics facilitates the development of wireless algorithms.

Surgical robots are designed to overcome the physiological limitations of the human body and are playing an increasingly important role in precision surgery, typically by providing assistance to physicians during procedures. Vascular interventional robots, in particular, represent a new growth area and a significant trend within this field.

Industry giants have entered the market, such as Siemens Healthineers’ CorPath GRX vascular interventional surgical robot, which is the only one globally to have obtained both CE and FDA certifications; Johnson & Johnson’s Sensei X2 has received FDA approval.

In the domestic market, the research, development, and promotion of vascular robots are also proceeding with great momentum. The ““Luban” Minimally Invasive Vascular Interventional Surgical Robot, capable of simultaneously performing angiography and therapeutic procedures. In 2019, this surgical robot system successfully conducted China’s first clinical trial for cerebrovascular applications.

In 2021, developed by Weimai MedicalETcath Vascular Intervention RobotThe first PCI procedure was completed at Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University. Technically, this interventional surgical robot achieved key breakthroughs in vascular interventional robotic technologies, including high-precision biomimetic advancement of catheters and guidewires, haptic feedback for guidewires, control of multiple catheter types, and rapid detachment of the 3-second sterile cassette.

On March 5, 2022, under Allwell Medical’sEndovascular Interventional Surgical Robot ALLVAS™Under the operation of Professor Zhang Bili's team in the Department of Cardiology at Changhai Hospital, affiliated with Naval Medical University of China, a successful case of universal robot-assisted full-process percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was completed.

Compared with the aforementioned vascular interventional robots, the interventional robotic systems developed by Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the University of Science and Technology of China, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University are based on magnetic control technology, representing one of the future research directions. Currently, there is a surge in R&D projects focused on miniature robots capable of navigating freely within blood vessels, promising further breakthroughs in the future.