Jack Hilton-Jones

MINDS CDT doctoral researcher | University of Southampton | MINDS CDT, 2023

Making magnetic robots safer to navigate through blood vessels

Some medical procedures depend on guiding fine instruments through the body’s blood vessels. Jack Hilton-Jones is developing predictive-control methods that aim to help flexible magnetic robots navigate those vessels more safely and precisely.

Profiles: Jack Hilton-Jones on LinkedIn

Research at a glance

Research focus	Predictive control of magnetic continuum robots
Application area	Endovascular navigation research, with potential future relevance to procedures such as mechanical thrombectomy
MINDS theme	Task-Optimised Devices and Systems
Methods	Magnetic continuum robots, predictive control, hierarchical control, statistical analysis of controller behaviour
Research keywords	Robotics, healthcare AI, control systems
Current status	Doctoral researcher, due to graduate in 2027

Steering flexible robots through blood vessels

Some endovascular procedures require clinicians to guide wires, catheters or other small instruments through complex networks of blood vessels.

Magnetic continuum robots offer a different way to steer. They are flexible devices guided through the vessels by a magnetic field from a robotic arm outside the body, without the mechanical pull-wires used to steer many devices.

That flexibility is also the challenge. The robot’s shape changes as it moves through the vessel network and responds to magnetic forces and its surroundings, which makes precise navigation difficult to guarantee.

Jack is developing methods that predict how the robot will behave in the body. A control system can then use those predictions to anticipate and avoid unsafe interactions before they occur, rather than reacting after the fact.

Why the research matters

One area where this research could be relevant is mechanical thrombectomy, the procedure used to remove a blood clot from the brain after a stroke. The procedure is time-critical, requires highly trained specialists and is not available in every hospital.

In the longer term, more predictable and reliable control could support the development of robotic tools that assist clinicians in complex vascular procedures. Jack’s hope is that robotics could one day help deliver treatment in local centres, so that patients can be treated sooner.

This is doctoral research aimed at future systems, not a technology currently in clinical use.

Research approach

Steering a robot safely means knowing when it can rely on its own predictions. Jack carried out a statistical analysis of more than 1,600 controller events and used what he found to build a hierarchical controller: a layered control system that learns when to trust its predictions and when to pull back.

Jack came to robotics from mathematics, and his research brings together AI, control theory, robotics and healthcare.

Research keywords: magnetic continuum robots, predictive control, hierarchical control, endovascular robotics, surgical robotics

Research and outputs

Featured output: 2026 Showcase presentation

At the 2026 MINDS and SustAI Showcase on 24 June, Jack presented his research to industry partners, policymakers and academics in a talk titled Autonomous Magnetic Continuum Robotics for Endovascular Interventions.

Research profiles

• Jack Hilton-Jones on LinkedIn

Showcase story and research film

• Read Jack’s Showcase story: Navigating magnetic robots for assisted robotic surgery
• Watch the 2026 MINDS and SustAI Showcase research film, featuring Jack

Looking ahead

After his PhD, Jack hopes to work as a robotics engineer, with a particular interest in space robotics.