MRI compliant micro-motors for medical and biomedical applications

The performances offered by Magnetics Resonance Imaging (MRI) are widely recognized and used by practitioners. Mainly used for diagnostic issues, MRI becomes more and more an interventional tool in image-assisted classic or robotic surgery. However, constraints imposed by the MRI strong magnetic field and strong magnetic gradients in terms of material and architecture are often obstacles to MRI guided robotics. Designers have to deal with the few choices offered to them to build a robot which will be able to respond to severe specifications, in terms of space limitations, magnetic field sensitivity and image impact. Piezoelectric micro-motors are good candidates to fulfil these requirements in several fields of applications.