Magnetic microrobot and its application in a microfluidic system

AbstractThis paper researches the design and control method of a microrobot in a microfluidic system by electromagnetic field. The microrobot can move along the microchannel to a required position, and by changing the magnetic torque, the microrobot can also rotate in the microfluidic chip. As an application of the microrobot, it is used as a mobile micromixer to mix two solutions in the microfluidic chip, and the experimental results verify its effectiveness

System integration of magnetic medical microrobots: from design to control

Magnetic microrobots are ideal for medical applications owing to their deep tissue penetration, precise control, and flexible movement. After decades of development, various magnetic microrobots have been used to achieve medical functions such as targeted delivery, cell manipulation, and minimally invasive surgery. This review introduces the research status and latest progress in the design and control systems of magnetic medical microrobots from a system integration perspective and summarizes the advantages and limitations of the research to provide a reference for developers. Finally, the future development direction of magnetic medical microrobot design and control systems are discussed

Assembly and movement control of micro-objects in open chips using a single actuator

Microfluidics and micro-objects are usually driven in the sealed chips. We herein describe a novel technique for the manipulation of micro-objects in an open chip environment. More specifically, upon vibration of the chip using a single actuator, particles were moved and assembled along a specified direction. This movement trajectory was controlled by the vibration frequency of the actuator, and the particle velocity was determined by the vibration amplitude and frequency. Furthermore, particles with different radii may be separated, as the observed drag forces are related to particle size. All these manipulations were completed in open chips without pumps or valves. This open chip environment also enables atomic force microscopes and scanning ion conductance microscopes to observe and manipulate particles directly within the chip, which could be of particular importance to the fields of chemistry, biology, and medicine

Review of Bubble Applications in Microrobotics: Propulsion, Manipulation, and Assembly

In recent years, microbubbles have been widely used in the field of microrobots due to their unique properties. Microbubbles can be easily produced and used as power sources or tools of microrobots, and the bubbles can even serve as microrobots themselves. As a power source, bubbles can propel microrobots to swim in liquid under low-Reynolds-number conditions. As a manipulation tool, microbubbles can act as the micromanipulators of microrobots, allowing them to operate upon particles, cells, and organisms. As a microrobot, microbubbles can operate and assemble complex microparts in two- or three-dimensional spaces. This review provides a comprehensive overview of bubble applications in microrobotics including propulsion, micromanipulation, and microassembly. First, we introduce the diverse bubble generation and control methods. Then, we review and discuss how bubbles can play a role in microrobotics via three functions: propulsion, manipulation, and assembly. Finally, by highlighting the advantages and current challenges of this progress, we discuss the prospects of microbubbles in microrobotics

Automatic Path Tracking and Target Manipulation of a Magnetic Microrobot

Recently, wireless controlled microrobots have been studied because of their great development prospects in the biomedical field. Electromagnetic microrobots have the advantages of control agility and good precision, and thus, have received much attention. Most of the control methods for controlling a magnetic microrobot use manual operation. Compared to the manual method, the automatic method will increase the accuracy and stability of locomotion and manipulation of microrobots. In this paper, we propose an electromagnetic manipulation system for automatically controlling the locomotion and manipulation of microrobots. The microrobot can be automatically controlled to track various paths by using visual feedback with an expert control algorithm. A positioning accuracy test determined that the position error ranges from 92 to 293 μm, which is less than the body size (600 μm) of the microrobot. The velocity of the microrobot is nearly proportional to the applied current in the coils, and can reach 5 mm/s. As a micromanipulation tool, the microrobot is used to manipulate microspheres and microgears with the automatic control method. The results verify that the microrobot can drag, place, and drive the microstructures automatically with high precision. The microrobot is expected to be a delicate micromachine that could play its role in microfluidics and blood vessels, where conventional instruments are hard to reach

Fabrication of SWCNT-Graphene Field-Effect Transistors

Graphene and single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) have been widely studied because of their extraordinary electrical, thermal, mechanical, and optical properties. This paper describes a novel and flexible method to fabricate all-carbon field-effect transistors (FETs). The fabrication process begins with assembling graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on a silicon chip with SiO2 as the dielectric layer and n-doped Si substrate as the gate. Next, an atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based mechanical cutting method is utilized to cut the graphene into interdigitated electrodes with nanogaps, which serve as the source and drain. Lastly, SWCNTs are assembled on the graphene interdigitated electrodes by dielectrophoresis to form the conductive channel. The electrical properties of the thus-fabricated SWCNT-graphene FETs are investigated and their FET behavior is confirmed. The current method effectively integrates SWCNTs and graphene in nanoelectronic devices, and presents a new method to build all-carbon electronic devices