Title:  Design, Fabrication, and Control of Magnetically Actuated Microrobots for Neurosurgical Applications

Committee: 

Dr. Ansari, Advisor       

Dr. Inan, Chair

Dr. Brand

Dr. Huang

Dr. Desai

Abstract: The objective of the proposed research is to develop a clinical scale system for neurosurgical microscale robots or microrobots to perform drug delivery for subsurface tumors. Microrobots for biomedical applications have recently attracted significant research attention due to their potential advantages in performing drug/cargo delivery, microsurgery, and biopsies. Owing to their small sizes, such robots are designed to be minimally invasive and precisely controlled inside the human body. In particular, the application of microrobots in neurosurgery has remained relatively unexplored due to the complex and critical anatomy required for navigation as well as the demand for highly precise operations. This proposal presents a microrobot capable of drilling in controllable trajectories inside a gel brain tissue phantom. Consisting of a 250μm neodymium magnet attached to a 1mm long drill part fabricated by two-photon polymerization, the microrobot can be steered by external magnetic fields to reach its targeted area. Additionally, the incorporation of nanoparticle loaded hydrogels onto the microrobot enables targeted drug delivery to treat subsurface tumors in the brain. Future work in the proposal will focus on scaling up and integrating the robotic control system with CT-scan for medical imaging and feedback control as well as testing the hydrogel's capability for drug delivery in actual brain tissue.