Cooperative Micromanipulation Using the Independent Actuation of Fifty Microrobots in Parallel

M Arifur Rahman,Aaron T Ohta,Zhidong Wang,Julian Cheng

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-03525-y

M Arifur Rahman, Aaron T Ohta + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03525-y

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Abstract

Micromanipulation for applications in areas such as tissue engineering can require mesoscale structures to be assembled with microscale resolution. One method for achieving such manipulation is the parallel actuation of many microrobots in parallel. However, current microrobot systems lack the independent actuation of many entities in parallel. Here, the independent actuation of fifty opto-thermocapillary flow-addressed bubble (OFB) microrobots in parallel is demonstrated. Individual microrobots and groups of microrobots were moved along linear, circular, and arbitrary 2D trajectories. The independent addressing of many microrobots enables higher-throughput microassembly of micro-objects, and cooperative manipulation using multiple microrobots. Demonstrations of manipulation with multiple OFB microrobots include the transportation of microstructures using a pair or team of microrobots, and the cooperative manipulation of multiple micro-objects. The results presented here represent an order of magnitude increase in the number of independently actuated microrobots in parallel as compared to other magnetically or electrostatically actuated microrobots, and a factor of two increase as compared to previous demonstrations of OFB microrobots.

Highlights

Electrostatic and electromagnetic actuation can manipulate multiple microrobots in parallel, but it is challenging to move microrobots along independent trajectories using global actuation signals that couple microrobot motion to one another
This paper presents the independent actuation of 50 microrobots in parallel on a titanium-coated glass slide
The fluidic chamber used in these experiments was formed using a 500-μm spacer between a standard glass microscope slide and a glass substrate coated with 50 nm of titanium

Summary

Introduction

Electrostatic and electromagnetic actuation can manipulate multiple microrobots in parallel, but it is challenging to move microrobots along independent trajectories using global actuation signals that couple microrobot motion to one another. One solution is to vary the physical properties of the microrobots so that each one has a different response to a global actuation signal[14, 15, 32] Another approach is the use of specialized working surfaces with arrays of transducers that create localized actuation forces[19, 32, 33]. This enables the simultaneous actuation of microrobots along different trajectories, but has so far been limited to 10 microrobots or less. The fluid above the hot spot was vaporized, generating a bubble

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