• capsule endoscope
• electromagnetic modeling
• magnetic navigation

The gastrointestinal tract is home to some of the
most deadly human diseases. Problems are related to the difficulty of accessing it for diagnosis or intervention and concomitant patient discomfort. Flexible endoscopy has established itself as the method of choice with high diagnostic accuracy, but there remain several technical limitations and the procedure is poorly tolerated by patients. The use of magnetic
fields to control and steer endoscopic capsules is increasing in minimally invasive surgical applications. In fact, magnetic coupling is one of the few physical phenomena capable of transmitting motion beyond a physical barrier and allowing for a compact design of the “slave” device. In this framework, the authors present a preliminary study for the design of a magnetic
coupling for magnetic endoscopic capsules considering an electromagnetic approach within the proposed thesis. In particular the target was to maximize the magnetic interaction
forces and torques induced by the external electromagnetic source on the endoscopic capsule embedding an internal permanent magnet, still complying with the limitations imposed by the specific applicative scenario.