Flow-driven robotic navigation of microengineered endovascular probes

Abstract: Minimally invasive medical procedures, such as endovascular catheterization, have drastically reduced procedure time and associated complications. However, many regions inside the body, such as in the brain vasculature, still remain inaccessible due to the lack of appropriate guidance technologies. Here, experimentally and through numerical simulations, we show that tethered ultra-flexible endovascular microscopic probes can be transported through tortuous vascular networks almost effortlessly by harnessing hydrokinetic energy. Dynamic steering at bifurcations is performed by deformation of the probe head using magnetic actuation. We developed an endovascular microrobotic toolkit with a cross-sectional area that is approximately three orders of magnitude smaller than the smallest microcatheter currently available. Our technology has the potential to revolutionize the state-of-the-art practices as it enhances the reachability, reduces the risk of iatrogenic damage, significantly increases the speed of robot-assisted interventions, and enables the deployment of multiple leads simultaneously through a standard needle injection.