マルチ スケール キノウ ヲ ユウスル コウソク ジドウ マイクロ マニピュレーション システム

Ebubekir Avci, Chanh-Nghiem Nguyen, Kenichi Ohara, Yasushi Mae, Tatsuo Arai, Analysis and suppression of residual vibration in microhand for high-speed single-cell manipulation, International Journal of Mechatronics and Automation, 2013-Vol.3, No.2, pp.110-11

Development of novel micropneumatic grippers for biomanipulation

Microbjects with dimensions from 1 μm to 1 mm have been developed recently for different aspects and purposes. Consequently, the development of handling and manipulation tools to fulfil this need is urgently required. Micromanipulation techniques could be generally categorized according to their actuation method such as electrostatic, thermal, shape memory alloy, piezoelectric, magnetic, and fluidic actuation. Each of which has its advantage and disadvantage. The fluidic actuation has been overlooked in MEMS despite its satisfactory output in the micro-scale. This thesis presents different families of pneumatically driven, low cost, compatible with biological environment, scalable, and controllable microgrippers. The first family demonstrated a polymeric microgripper that was laser cut and actuated pneumatically. It was tested to manipulate microparticles down to 200 microns. To overcome the assembly challenges that arise in this family, the second family was proposed. The second family was a micro-cantilever based microgripper, where the device was assembled layer by layer to form a 3D structure. The microcantilevers were fabricated using photo-etching technique, and demonstrated the applicability to manipulate micro-particles down to 200 microns using automated pick-and-place procedure. In addition, this family was used as a tactile-detector as well. Due to the angular gripping scheme followed by the above mentioned families, gripping smaller objects becomes a challenging task. A third family following a parallel gripping scheme was proposed allowing the gripping of smaller objects to be visible. It comprises a compliant structure microgripper actuated pneumatically and fabricated using picosecond laser technology, and demonstrated the capability of gripping microobject as small as 100 μm microbeads. An FEA modelling was employed to validate the experimental and analytical results, and excellent matching was achieved

Advanced medical micro-robotics for early diagnosis and therapeutic interventions

Recent technological advances in micro-robotics have demonstrated their immense potential for biomedical applications. Emerging micro-robots have versatile sensing systems, flexible locomotion and dexterous manipulation capabilities that can significantly contribute to the healthcare system. Despite the appreciated and tangible benefits of medical micro-robotics, many challenges still remain. Here, we review the major challenges, current trends and significant achievements for developing versatile and intelligent micro-robotics with a focus on applications in early diagnosis and therapeutic interventions. We also consider some recent emerging micro-robotic technologies that employ synthetic biology to support a new generation of living micro-robots. We expect to inspire future development of micro-robots toward clinical translation by identifying the roadblocks that need to be overcome

Hybrid optical and magnetic manipulation of microrobots

Microrobotic systems have the potential to provide precise manipulation on cellular level for diagnostics, drug delivery and surgical interventions. These systems vary from tethered to untethered microrobots with sizes below a micrometer to a few microns. However, their main disadvantage is that they do not have the same capabilities in terms of degrees-of-freedom, sensing and control as macroscale robotic systems. In particular, their lack of on-board sensing for pose or force feedback, their control methods and interface for automated or manual user control are limited as well as their geometry has few degrees-of-freedom making three-dimensional manipulation more challenging. This PhD project is on the development of a micromanipulation framework that can be used for single cell analysis using the Optical Tweezers as well as a combination of optical trapping and magnetic actuation for recon gurable microassembly. The focus is on untethered microrobots with sizes up to a few tens of microns that can be used in enclosed environments for ex vivo and in vitro medical applications. The work presented investigates the following aspects of microrobots for single cell analysis: i) The microfabrication procedure and design considerations that are taken into account in order to fabricate components for three-dimensional micromanipulation and microassembly, ii) vision-based methods to provide 6-degree-offreedom position and orientation feedback which is essential for closed-loop control, iii) manual and shared control manipulation methodologies that take into account the user input for multiple microrobot or three-dimensional microstructure manipulation and iv) a methodology for recon gurable microassembly combining the Optical Tweezers with magnetic actuation into a hybrid method of actuation for microassembly.Open Acces

Advanced medical micro-robotics for early diagnosis and therapeutic interventions

Recent technological advances in micro-robotics have demonstrated their immense potential for biomedical applications. Emerging micro-robots have versatile sensing systems, flexible locomotion and dexterous manipulation capabilities that can significantly contribute to the healthcare system. Despite the appreciated and tangible benefits of medical micro-robotics, many challenges still remain. Here, we review the major challenges, current trends and significant achievements for developing versatile and intelligent micro-robotics with a focus on applications in early diagnosis and therapeutic interventions. We also consider some recent emerging micro-robotic technologies that employ synthetic biology to support a new generation of living micro-robots. We expect to inspire future development of micro-robots toward clinical translation by identifying the roadblocks that need to be overcome

Viscoelasticity and Structure of Soft Biological Interfaces: From Artificial Models to Living Tissues

The primary aim of this thesis is to shed a quantitative light on the mechanics of dynamic biological interfaces with different levels of structural complexities, ranging from lung surfactant models to regenerating tissues. In chapter 3, the correlation between biophysical properties and function of the native extracellular matrix (ECM), mesoglea, of the freshwater polyp Hydra was studied. In the body design of Hydra, mesoglea acts as an interlayer between external (ectodermal) and internal (endodermal) cell layers, sustaining the mechanical integrity of polyps. In this study, nano-focused grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering on isolated mesoglea revealed that the packing order of Hydra collagen type I was comparable to its vertebrate homologue. The structure was anisotropic with respect to the oral-aboral axis, supporting the extensive extension and contractions of the body along this axis. In the next step, the spatio-temporal evolution of mesoglea mechanics was tracked ex vivo by nano-indentation using an atomic force microscope. The experimental data demonstrated that freshly detached polyps initially had a uniformly soft mesoglea, but mesoglea changed the characteristic "elasticity patterns" during the asexual reproduction. This change could be explained by a quantitative proteome analysis, implying that the mechanical remodeling of Hydra was highly correlated with protease expression activity. When the body column tissue was transformed into head tissue either by a drug or by the over-expression of β-catenin, mesoglea had low elastic moduli over the whole body. This result suggests that the spatio-temporal patterns in mesoglea mechanics is strongly correlated with the stem cell activity. In chapter 4 a highly sensitive two-fingered micro-robotic hand was used to determine the viscoelastic properties of Hydra tissue fragments (regenerates) during early stages of regeneration. Owing to the dexterous grasping motion of microobjects realized by the micro-robot, the bulk elastic modulus of Hydra regenerates could be determined by linearly compressing the tissue by keeping the strain level low. Under a constant strain, the stress relaxation behavior could be interpreted by applying the Maxwell model of viscoelastic materials, yielding the Stokes frictional coefficient and viscous modulus. Furthermore, the forces actively generated by the regenerate were measured and shown to correlate well with shape fluctuations of a freely regenerating sample. In chapter 5, lung surfactant inactivation by serum proteins during the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) was simulated. As the model of dynamic, oscillating interfaces in lung, the competitive adsorption of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) to the air/water interface was monitored by periodically changing the surface area. The model was used to investigate the impact of perfluorohexane (PFH) as a potential therapeutics. The lipid-protein composite films at the air/water interface in the presence and absence of PFH gas could be visualized by fluorescence microscopy, indicating an accelerated displacement of a pre-adsorbed BSA by DPPC in saturated PFH atmosphere. The acceleration of BSA-DPPC replacement under PFH atmosphere was accompanied by significant changes in viscoelasticity of the interface, suggesting the incorporation of PFH to the protein layer

The development of optical nanomachines for studying molecules : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Mechatronics Engineering at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Chapter 3 is ©2020 IEEE. Accepted manuscript is reprinted, with permission, from 2020 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM). Chapter 5 is ©2022 IEEE. Accepted manuscript is reprinted, with permission, from 2022 International Conference on Manipulation, Automation and Robotics at Small Scales (MARSS).Optical tweezers have been used for a number of applications since their invention by Arthur Ashkin in 1986, and are particularly useful for biological and biophysical studies due to their exceptionally high spatial and force-based resolution. The same intense laser focus that allows light to be used as a tool for micro-nanoscale manipulation also has the potential to damage the objects being studied, and the extremely high force resolution is coupled with the limitation of very low forces. There is potential to overcome these drawbacks of optical manipulation through making use of another laser based technique: two-photon absorption polymerisation (TPAP). This thesis has brought these together to demonstrate the uses of optical nanomachines as helpful tools for optical tweezer studies. The project was highly interdisciplinary, concerning the intersection of optical trapping, 3D micromachine design and development, and DNA stretching. The thesis was based around the strategy of first developing microrobots and demonstrating their manipulation using optical tweezers, then adjusting the design for specific applications. Microlevers were developed for lever-assisted DNA stretching and amplification of optical forces. The influence of design features and TPAP parameters on microlever functionality was investigated; particularly the influence of overlapping area and presence of supports, and the effects of differently shaped "trapping handles". These features were important as lever functionality was tested in solutions of different ionic strength, and stable trapping of the levers was required for force amplification. DNA stretching was chosen as a target application for distanced-application of optical forces due to its status as a well-known and characterised example of single-molecule studies with optical tweezers. Amplification of optical forces was also seen as an application that could demonstrate the utility of optical micromachines, and microlevers with a 2:1 lever arm ratio were developed to produce consistent, two-fold amplification of optical forces, in a first for unsupported, pin-jointed optical microrobotics. It is hoped that in the future fully-remote, micromachine-assisted studies will extend optical tweezer studies of laser-sensitive subjects, as well as increasing the forces that can be applied, and the results obtained in this thesis are encouraging. All in all, the thesis confirms the potential of optical micromachines for aiding studies using optical tweezers, and demonstrates concrete progress in both design and application