Expanding the Workspace of Electromagnetic Navigation Systems Using Dynamic Feedback for Single- and Multi-agent Control

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zughaibi, Jasan, von Arx, Denis, Derungs, Maurus, Heemeyer, Florian, Antonelli, Luca A., Boehler, Quentin, Muehlebach, Michael, Nelson, Bradley J.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Zughaibi, Jasan
von Arx, Denis
Derungs, Maurus
Heemeyer, Florian
Antonelli, Luca A.
Boehler, Quentin
Muehlebach, Michael
Nelson, Bradley J.
author_facet Zughaibi, Jasan
von Arx, Denis
Derungs, Maurus
Heemeyer, Florian
Antonelli, Luca A.
Boehler, Quentin
Muehlebach, Michael
Nelson, Bradley J.
contents Electromagnetic navigation systems (eMNS) enable a number of magnetically guided surgical procedures. A challenge in magnetically manipulating surgical tools is that the effective workspace of an eMNS is often severely constrained by power and thermal limits. We show that system-level control design significantly expands this workspace by reducing the currents needed to achieve a desired motion. We identified five key system approaches that enable this expansion: (i) motion-centric torque/force objectives, (ii) energy-optimal current allocation, (iii) real-time pose estimation, (iv) dynamic feedback, and (v) high-bandwidth eMNS components. As a result, we stabilize a 3D inverted pendulum on an eight-coil OctoMag eMNS with significantly lower currents (0.1-0.2 A vs. 8-14 A), by replacing a field-centric field-alignment strategy with a motion-centric torque/force-based approach. We generalize to multi-agent control by simultaneously stabilizing two inverted pendulums within a shared workspace, exploiting magnetic-field nonlinearity and coil redundancy for independent actuation. A structured analysis compares the electromagnetic workspaces of both paradigms and examines current-allocation strategies that map motion objectives to coil currents. Cross-platform evaluation of the clinically oriented Navion eMNS further demonstrates substantial workspace expansion by maintaining stable balancing at distances up to 50 cm from the coils. The results demonstrate that feedback is a practical path to scalable, efficient, and clinically relevant magnetic manipulation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_18486
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Expanding the Workspace of Electromagnetic Navigation Systems Using Dynamic Feedback for Single- and Multi-agent Control
Zughaibi, Jasan
von Arx, Denis
Derungs, Maurus
Heemeyer, Florian
Antonelli, Luca A.
Boehler, Quentin
Muehlebach, Michael
Nelson, Bradley J.
Robotics
Systems and Control
Electromagnetic navigation systems (eMNS) enable a number of magnetically guided surgical procedures. A challenge in magnetically manipulating surgical tools is that the effective workspace of an eMNS is often severely constrained by power and thermal limits. We show that system-level control design significantly expands this workspace by reducing the currents needed to achieve a desired motion. We identified five key system approaches that enable this expansion: (i) motion-centric torque/force objectives, (ii) energy-optimal current allocation, (iii) real-time pose estimation, (iv) dynamic feedback, and (v) high-bandwidth eMNS components. As a result, we stabilize a 3D inverted pendulum on an eight-coil OctoMag eMNS with significantly lower currents (0.1-0.2 A vs. 8-14 A), by replacing a field-centric field-alignment strategy with a motion-centric torque/force-based approach. We generalize to multi-agent control by simultaneously stabilizing two inverted pendulums within a shared workspace, exploiting magnetic-field nonlinearity and coil redundancy for independent actuation. A structured analysis compares the electromagnetic workspaces of both paradigms and examines current-allocation strategies that map motion objectives to coil currents. Cross-platform evaluation of the clinically oriented Navion eMNS further demonstrates substantial workspace expansion by maintaining stable balancing at distances up to 50 cm from the coils. The results demonstrate that feedback is a practical path to scalable, efficient, and clinically relevant magnetic manipulation.
title Expanding the Workspace of Electromagnetic Navigation Systems Using Dynamic Feedback for Single- and Multi-agent Control
topic Robotics
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.18486