Effect of surfactants on the performance of tubular and spherical micromotors – a comparative study

The development of artificial micromotors is one of the greatest challenges of modern nanotechnology. Even though many kinds of motors have been published in recent times, systematic studies on the influence of components of the fuel solution are widely missing. Therefore, the autonomous movement of Pt-microtubes and Pt-covered silica particles is comparatively observed in the presence and absence of surfactants in the medium. One representative of each of the three main surfactant classes-anionic (sodium dodecyl sulfate, SDS), cationic (benzalkonium chloride, BACl) and non-ionic (Triton X)-has been chosen and studied

Magnetic Actuation Methods in Bio/Soft Robotics

International audienceIn recent years, magnetism has gained an enormous amount of interest among researchers for actuating different sizes and types of bio/soft robots, which can be via an electromagnetic-coil system, or a system of moving permanent magnets. Different actuation strategies are used in robots with magnetic actuation having a number of advantages in possible realization of microscale robots such as bioinspired microrobots, tetherless microrobots, cellular microrobots, or even normal size soft robots such as electromagnetic soft robots and medical robots. This review provides a summary of recent research in magnetically actuated bio/soft robots, discussing fabrication processes and actuation methods together with relevant applications in biomedical area and discusses future prospects of this way of actuation for possible improvements in performance of different types of bio/soft robots