In Silico Magnetic Nanocontainers Navigation in Blood Vessels: A Feedback Control Approach

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are recently used in a drug delivery system to pass the blood brain barrier. However, because the magnetic force acting on particles is proportional to their volumes, as the size of particles is small, the large magnetic field is required to produce enough magnetic force for overcoming the hydrodynamic drag force as well as other forces in blood vessels. Other difficulties for controlling MNPs are the complicated behavior of hydrodynamic drag force and uncertain factors in their dynamics. Therefore, open-loop control methods cannot guarantee guiding every MNP to the correct location. Considering these challenges, this paper introduces a feedback control approach for magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) in blood vessels. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time feedback controller that is designed for MNPs without aggregation. Simulation studies in MATLAB and real-time verifications on a physical model in COMSOL-MATLAB interface are performed to prove the feasibility of the proposed approach. It is shown that the proposed control scheme can accurately and effectively navigate the MNP to the correct path with feasible hardware supports.