Abstract
Magnetically actuated ciliary microrobots were designed, fabricated, and manipulated to mimic cilia-based microorganisms such as paramecia. Full three-dimensional (3D) microrobot structures were fabricated using 3D laser lithography to form a polymer base structure. A nickel/titanium bilayer was sputtered onto the cilia part of the microrobot to ensure magnetic actuation and biocompatibility. The microrobots were manipulated by an electromagnetic coil system, which generated a stepping magnetic field to actuate the cilia with non-reciprocal motion. The cilia beating motion produced a net propulsive force, resulting in movement of the microrobot. The magnetic forces on individual cilia were calculated with various input parameters including magnetic field strength, cilium length, applied field angle, actual cilium angle, etc., and the translational velocity was measured experimentally. The position and orientation of the ciliary microrobots were precisely controlled, and targeted particle transportation was demonstrated experimentally.
Highlights
Swimming microrobots can perform various biomedical operations, such as accurately targeted therapy, minimally invasive surgery, and precise cell or drug delivery by means of remote control in the fluidic environment of biological systems[1,2,3]
Microorganisms sometimes provide inspiration for efficient moving in a low Reynolds number fluidic environment
Other effective mechanisms to induce motion in microrobots, such as corkscrew motions in the case of chiral structures, and travelling wave motions in tails attached to the microrobots, have already been implemented
Summary
Swimming microrobots can perform various biomedical operations, such as accurately targeted therapy, minimally invasive surgery, and precise cell or drug delivery by means of remote control in the fluidic environment of biological systems[1,2,3]. Efficient swimming in a low Reynolds number environment requires innovative approaches for microrobots in terms of shape and actuating methodology on structure and mechanism design because of absence of inertia and presence of relatively high drag forces due to the small size of the microrobots[7,8,9]. Eukaryotic flagella use a traveling-wave motion with a flexible tail This motion is possible due to the external oscillating magnetic fields[19,20,21,22,23,24,25]. Other mechanisms to manipulate micro-swimmers include biological and bio-hybrid approaches, which use a biological motor to achieve locomotion of microrobots[32,33,34,35] Such biological structures may have immune or toxicity issues, which may be unsuitable for in vivo applications. We propose an artificial ciliary microrobot, to be actuated by non-reciprocal actuation for net positive propulsion that mimics the cilium beating of paramecium
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