Adaptive wireless millirobotic locomotion into distal vasculature

Microcatheters have enabled diverse minimally invasive endovascular operations and notable health benefits compared with open surgeries. However, with tortuous routes far from the arterial puncture site, the distal vascular regions remain challenging for safe catheter access. Therefore, we propose a wireless stent-shaped magnetic soft robot to be deployed, actively navigated, used for medical functions, and retrieved in the example M4 segment of the middle cerebral artery. We investigate shape-adaptively controlled locomotion in phantoms emulating the physiological conditions here, where the lumen diameter shrinks from 1.5 mm to 1 mm, the radius of curvature of the tortuous lumen gets as small as 3 mm, the lumen bifurcation angle goes up to 120°, and the pulsatile flow speed reaches up to 26 cm/s. The robot can also withstand the flow when the magnetic actuation is turned off. These locomotion capabilities are confirmed in porcine arteries ex vivo. Furthermore, variants of the robot could release the tissue plasminogen activator on-demand locally for thrombolysis and function as flow diverters, initiating promising therapies towards acute ischemic stroke, aneurysm, arteriovenous malformation, dural arteriovenous fistulas, and brain tumors. These functions should facilitate the robot’s usage in new distal endovascular operations.