An Improved Simultaneously Magnetic Actuation and Localization Method based on Magnetic Sensor Array

Magnetically actuated wireless capsule robot has been a promising medical apparatus for minimally invasive examination and operation in the gastrointestinal tract. Position and orientation information of the robot are essential for an effective and safe feedback control. However, simultaneous actuation and localization is still a challenge. In our previous work, we proposed a multi-magnet based method. To further improve the tracking accuracy, in this paper we propose a method which utilizes the prior known pose information of the external actuation magnet. Moreover, the method also can simplify the calculation. A magnetic sensor array is used to sample the magnetic field from the external magnet and internal magnet. By subtracting the magnetic field of the external magnet according to the prior pose information, pose of the internal magnet then can be estimated by using nonlinear optimization algorithm. Experimental results verified the proposed method.