Dynamics of a magnetically rotated micro swimmer inspired by paramecium metachronal wave

Abstract

In the past few years, a significant body of research has been devoted to designing magnetic micron scale robotic systems for minimally invasive medicine. The motion of different microorganisms is the nature’s solution for efficient propulsion of these swimmers. So far, there has been a considerable effort in designing micro swimmers based on the propulsion of bacteria while the motion of numerous other microorganisms has not been a source of inspiration for designing micro swimmers yet. Inspired by propulsion of Paramecium which is a ciliate microorganism, a novel micro swimmer is proposed in this article which is capable of cargo transport. This novel swimmer is composed of multiple equally spaced rigid loxodromic rods spanning the surface of a sphere which can carry a cargo placed inside it. The propulsion of this swimmer is influenced by the geometry of the swimmer (diameter, number of rods, cargo size), therefore, CFD simulations have been performed to investigate it. Finally, the dynamics of this swimmer is investigated analytically which sheds light into the complex dynamics of a swimmer with this geometry.