Pitch Angle Control of a Magnetically Actuated Capsule Robot with Nonlinear FEA-based MPC and EKF Multisensory Fusion

Abstract: Magnetically actuated capsule robots promise minimally invasive diagnosis and therapy in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, but existing systems largely neglect control of capsule pitch, a degree of freedom critical for contact-rich interaction with inclined gastric walls. This paper presents a nonlinear, model-based framework for magnetic pitch control of an ingestible capsule robot actuated by a four-coil electromagnetic array. Angle-dependent magnetic forces and torques acting on embedded permanent magnets are characterized using three-dimensional finite-element simulations and embedded as lookup tables in a control-oriented rigid-body pitching model with rolling contact and actuator dynamics. A constrained model predictive controller (MPC) is designed to regulate pitch while respecting hardware-imposed current and slew-rate limits. Experiments on a compliant stomach-inspired surface demonstrate robust pitch reorientation from both horizontal and upright configurations, achieving about three to five times faster settling and reduced oscillatory motion than on-off control. Furthermore, an extended Kalman filter (EKF) fusing inertial sensing with intermittent visual measurements enables stable closed-loop control when the camera update rate is reduced from 30 Hz to 1 Hz, emulating clinically realistic imaging constraints. These results establish finite-element-informed MPC with sensor fusion as a scalable strategy for pitch regulation, controlled docking, and future multi-degree-of-freedom capsule locomotion.