{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T11:22:17Z","timestamp":1785410537188,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,15]],"date-time":"2026-04-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1776211200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100011259","name":"Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Robotics","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2024-O08"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024-O08"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100011259","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Wuxi People\u2019s Hospital\u2013Jiangnan University Joint Research Center for Intelligent Diagnosis and Treatment of Digestive System"},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/05pb5hm55","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Micromachines"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Magnetically driven microrobots operating in intestinal environments face two major challenges: difficulty in traversing low-height confined spaces and limited local visibility caused by mucosal obstruction. To address these issues, this study proposes a gradient-field-based force-driven control method for a mudskipper-inspired magnetic microrobot. By establishing the mapping among coil current, magnetic field, and magnetic force at the robot working point, and by solving the control input through singular value decomposition and linear programming, effective magnetic-force output along a desired direction was achieved. On this basis, two representative force-driven motions were designed. The first was a translational mode based on pulsed magnetic-force actuation for stable navigation in low-height confined spaces. The second was a lifting mode based on continuous loading and gradual adjustment of the magnetic-force upper bound to locally lift a flexible \u201cmucosa-like\u201d membrane, thereby simulating intestinal mucosal elevation and local visual field expansion. Experimental results showed that the robot could stably pass through narrow tunnels and effectively lift an overlying flexible membrane under vertical magnetic-force actuation. The proposed method extends both the locomotion capability and the local interaction capability of the mudskipper-inspired magnetic microrobot, and demonstrates a feasible proof-of-concept approach for confined-space navigation and localized manipulation in intestinal applications.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/mi17040476","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,15]],"date-time":"2026-04-15T14:02:33Z","timestamp":1776261753000},"page":"476","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Gradient-Field-Based Force-Driven Control of a Mudskipper-Inspired Magnetic Microrobot for Intestinal Applications"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Yijie","family":"Du","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"The Key Laboratory of Advanced Process Control for Light Industry (Ministry of Education), Institute of Automation, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Huiting","family":"Xie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Key Laboratory of Advanced Process Control for Light Industry (Ministry of Education), Institute of Automation, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wenqi","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Key Laboratory of Advanced Process Control for Light Industry (Ministry of Education), Institute of Automation, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuting","family":"Mao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Key Laboratory of Advanced Process Control for Light Industry (Ministry of Education), Institute of Automation, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2263-0225","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gongxin","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Key Laboratory of Advanced Process Control for Light Industry (Ministry of Education), Institute of Automation, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"11","DOI":"10.1007\/s40820-019-0350-5","article-title":"A review on artificial micro\/nanomotors for cancer-targeted delivery, diagnosis, and therapy","volume":"12","author":"Wang","year":"2020","journal-title":"Nano-Micro Lett."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1706100","DOI":"10.1002\/adfm.201706100","article-title":"Micro-\/nanorobots at work in active drug delivery","volume":"28","author":"Luo","year":"2018","journal-title":"Adv. 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