Selectively controlled magnetic microrobots with opposing helices

Abstract

Magnetic microrobots that swim through liquid media are of interest for minimally invasive medical procedures, bioengineering, and manufacturing. Many of the envisaged applications, such as micromanipulation and targeted cargo delivery, necessitate the use and adequate control of multiple microrobots, which will increase the velocity, robustness, and efficacy of a procedure. While various methods involving heterogeneous geometries, magnetic properties, and surface chemistries have been proposed to enhance independent control, the main challenge has been that the motion between all microswimmers remains coupled through the global control signal of the magnetic field. Katsamba and Lauga [Phys. Rev. Appl. 5, 064019 (2016)] proposed transchiral microrobots, a theoretical design with magnetized spirals of opposite handedness. The competition between the spirals can be tuned to give an intrinsic nonlinearity that each device can function only within a given band of frequencies. This allows individual microrobots to be selectively controlled by varying the frequency of the rotating magnetic field. Here, we present the experimental realization and characterization of transchiral micromotors composed of independently driven magnetic helices. We show a swimming micromotor that yields negligible net motion until a critical frequency is reached and a micromotor that changes its translation direction as a function of the frequency of the rotating magnetic field. This work demonstrates a crucial step toward completely decoupled and addressable swimming magnetic microrobots.