A Novel Method of Arraying Permanent Magnets Circumferentially to Generate a Rotation Magnetic Field

An outer magnetic field is extensively applied to drive the movement of a clinic micro-robot. However, how to produce a suitable magnetic field is a complicated problem. Commonly, the drive magnetic field is generated by a combination of power coils. This paper presents a novel method that circumferentially arrays identical permanent magnets to generate a rotational magnetic field in the center area of the array circle. First, we distribute permanent magnets uniformly in a circle, and adjust each of them at a corresponding initial angle. All of the magnets rotate in the same direction synchronously, generating a constant strength and reverse rotation magnetic field in the center area of the circle. The rotation speed of the generated magnetic field equals that of the permanent magnets. We used two models to analyze the magnetic field, and did some numerical analyses. We set up a test-bed and carried out some experiments to prove the feasibility of the novel method. The method seems to have wide applicability in designing magnets to drive micro-robots for diagnosis and treatment.