Adaptive locomotion of artificial microswimmers

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Abstract

Artificial microswimmers display adaptive locomotion by autonomously morphing in response to physical changes in the environment.

Abstract

Bacteria can exploit mechanics to display remarkable plasticity in response to locally changing physical and chemical conditions. Compliant structures play a notable role in their taxis behavior, specifically for navigation inside complex and structured environments. Bioinspired mechanisms with rationally designed architectures capable of large, nonlinear deformation present opportunities for introducing autonomy into engineered small-scale devices. This work analyzes the effect of hydrodynamic forces and rheology of local surroundings on swimming at low Reynolds number, identifies the challenges and benefits of using elastohydrodynamic coupling in locomotion, and further develops a suite of machinery for building untethered microrobots with self-regulated mobility. We demonstrate that coupling the structural and magnetic properties of artificial microswimmers with the dynamic properties of the fluid leads to adaptive locomotion in the absence of on-board sensors.

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Microscopic artificial swimmers.

Rémi Dreyfus, Jean Baudry, Marcus L. Roper … (2005)

Microorganisms such as bacteria and many eukaryotic cells propel themselves with hair-like structures known as flagella, which can exhibit a variety of structures and movement patterns. For example, bacterial flagella are helically shaped and driven at their bases by a reversible rotary engine, which rotates the attached flagellum to give a motion similar to that of a corkscrew. In contrast, eukaryotic cells use flagella that resemble elastic rods and exhibit a beating motion: internally generated stresses give rise to a series of bends that propagate towards the tip. In contrast to this variety of swimming strategies encountered in nature, a controlled swimming motion of artificial micrometre-sized structures has not yet been realized. Here we show that a linear chain of colloidal magnetic particles linked by DNA and attached to a red blood cell can act as a flexible artificial flagellum. The filament aligns with an external uniform magnetic field and is readily actuated by oscillating a transverse field. We find that the actuation induces a beating pattern that propels the structure, and that the external fields can be adjusted to control the velocity and the direction of motion.

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Microrobots for minimally invasive medicine.

Bradley Nelson, Ioannis K Kaliakatsos, Jake Abbott (2010)

Microrobots have the potential to revolutionize many aspects of medicine. These untethered, wirelessly controlled and powered devices will make existing therapeutic and diagnostic procedures less invasive and will enable new procedures never before possible. The aim of this review is threefold: first, to provide a comprehensive survey of the technological state of the art in medical microrobots; second, to explore the potential impact of medical microrobots and inspire future research in this field; and third, to provide a collection of valuable information and engineering tools for the design of medical microrobots.

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Micro/nanorobots for biomedicine: Delivery, surgery, sensing, and detoxification

Joseph Wang, Wei Gao, Berta Esteban-Fernández de Ávila … (2017)

Micro- and nanoscale robots that can effectively convert diverse energy sources into movement and force represent a rapidly emerging and fascinating robotics research area. Recent advances in the design, fabrication, and operation of micro/nanorobots have greatly enhanced their power, function, and versatility. The new capabilities of these tiny untethered machines indicate immense potential for a variety of biomedical applications. This article reviews recent progress and future perspectives of micro/nanorobots in biomedicine, with a special focus on their potential advantages and applications for directed drug delivery, precision surgery, medical diagnosis and detoxification. Future success of this technology, to be realized through close collaboration between robotics, medical and nanotechnology experts, should have a major impact on disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Sci Adv

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Sci Adv

Journal ID (publisher-id): SciAdv

Journal ID (hwp): advances

Title: Science Advances

Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science

ISSN (Electronic): 2375-2548

Publication date Collection: January 2019

Publication date (Electronic): 18 January 2019

Volume: 5

Issue: 1

Electronic Location Identifier: eaau1532

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Mechanical Engineering, ETH Zurich, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland.

[2 ]Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.

[3 ]Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0WA, UK.

Author notes

[*]

These authors contributed equally to this work.

[†]

Present address: School of Mathematics, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.

[‡ ]Corresponding author. Email: bnelson@ 123456ethz.ch

Author information

H.-W. Huang http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1921-8897

P. Katsamba http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6328-3018

M. S. Sakar http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7226-3382

B. J. Nelson http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9070-6987

Article

Publisher ID: aau1532

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aau1532

PMC ID: 6357760

PubMed ID: 30746446

SO-VID: 48cee244-6b2e-4c5f-9c82-5d26c676c101

Copyright © Copyright © 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).

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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.

History

Date received : 14 May 2018

Date accepted : 04 December 2018

Funding

Funded by: doi http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000781, European Research Council;

Award ID: 714609

Funded by: doi http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000781, European Research Council;

Award ID: 682754

Funded by: doi http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000781, European Research Council;

Award ID: 743217

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Copyeditor Jeanelle Ebreo

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Adaptive locomotion of artificial microswimmers

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Artificial Intelligence in Medicine

Most cited references 42

Microscopic artificial swimmers.

Microrobots for minimally invasive medicine.

Micro/nanorobots for biomedicine: Delivery, surgery, sensing, and detoxification

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