Bilateral control simulations for a pair of magnetically-coupled robotic arm and bacterium for in vivo applications

Abstract

There are several in vivo and in vitro control performances with artificial micro-swimmers; however, control of a biohybrid micro-swimmer using an open kinematic chain remains fairly untouched to this date. In this work, non-contact maneuvering control of a single magnetotactic bacterium cell is simulated under in vivo conditions of a synovial joint with associated physical properties of the respective synovial cavity. A very detailed mathematical model representing in vivo swimming conditions of an actual bacterium cell is built followed by a PID control scheme with adaptive integral gains. The performance of the control law is presented with the help of time-dependent errors to different yaw-angle references accompanied by the time-dependent states of the coupled system. The results show that the proposed control law is capable of adjusting the heading, i.e., yaw-angle, of the simulated magnetotactic bacterium species, i.e., Magnetospirillum Gryphiswaldense, moving at proximity to a curved surface, i.e., the inner surface of the synovial joint in a Homo sapiens. The results further demonstrate that it is possible to achieve set-point tracking against both constant and time-dependent references.