SmartBloch-Agent: An Agentic Framework for Automated MRI Sequence Design and Optimization

원문 초록

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) pulse sequences organize radiofrequency excitation, gradient encoding, and signal acquisition, determining magnetization evolution and image formation. Sequence research requires translating imaging objectives into executable protocols meeting physical and acquisition constraints, refined via physical simulation, signal reconstruction, and scientific evaluation. Sequence construction, physical verification, parameter search, and assessment involve many tools and manual decisions, limiting automation from objective to verifiable sequence. We develop SmartBloch-Agent, an integrated framework for automated MRI sequence design and optimization. Given objectives and scientific constraints in natural language, an AI agent interprets goals, plans tasks, orchestrates tools, and makes feedback-informed decisions, drawing on a construction module and optimizers for structural design and parameter search. Our GPU-accelerated SmartBloch engine supplies physical computation for both stages, so the framework configures, per sequence and objective, event validation, Full-Bloch magnetization evolution, signal acquisition, image reconstruction, and scientific evaluation, and closes the loop without external MRI simulators. Results return to the agent to guide sequence revision, parameter optimization, and candidate selection, and the design files carry simulation, reconstruction, and evaluation evidence, forming an output package for a real-scanner workflow. Experiments show the framework automatically designs and optimizes MRI sequences for varied objectives and constraints, refines candidates with physical feedback, and improves several parameter-estimation metrics and downstream quantitative reconstruction. SmartBloch-Agent unifies objectives, design, physical execution, and evaluation into a continuous workflow for end-to-end automation of MRI sequence research.