Use of 3D Potential Field and an Enhanced Breadth-first Search Algorithms for the Path Planning of Microdevices Propelled in the Cardiovascular System.

Potential field algorithms often used in path finding applications on a 2D plane are expanded onto a 3D map trajectories for navigation planning of a microdevice designed to be propelled through the cardiovascular system using magnetic gradients generated by a clinical MRI system. This system assembles a 3D reconstruction of a cardiovascular system through magnetic resonance angiography images. The method also allows the extraction of the physiological properties of the given network.