Tiantian Xu

Magnetic Actuation Based Motion Control for Microrobots: An Overview

Untethered, controllable, mobile microrobots have been proposed for numerous applications, ranging from micro-manipulation, in vitro tasks (e.g., operation of microscale biological substances) to in vivo applications (e.g., targeted drug delivery; brachytherapy; hyperthermia, etc.), due to their small-scale dimensions and accessibility to tiny and complex environments. Researchers have used different magnetic actuation systems allowing custom-designed workspace and multiple degrees of freedom (DoF) to actuate microrobots with various motion control methods from open-loop pre-programmed control to closed-loop path-following control. This article provides an overview of the magnetic actuation systems and the magnetic actuation-based control methods for microrobots. An overall benchmark on the magnetic actuation system and control method is also discussed according to the applications of microrobots.

Multifunctional biohybrid magnetite microrobots for imaging-guided therapy

A biohybrid microrobot with one-step fabrication provides multiple functions for imaging-guided therapy. Magnetic microrobots and nanorobots can be remotely controlled to propel in complex biological fluids with high precision by using magnetic fields. Their potential for controlled navigation in hard-to-reach cavities of the human body makes them promising miniaturized robotic tools to diagnose and treat diseases in a minimally invasive manner. However, critical issues, such as motion tracking, biocompatibility, biodegradation, and diagnostic/therapeutic effects, need to be resolved to allow preclinical in vivo development and clinical trials. We report biohybrid magnetic robots endowed with multifunctional capabilities by integrating desired structural and functional attributes from a biological matrix and an engineered coating. Helical microswimmers were fabricated from Spirulina microalgae via a facile dip-coating process in magnetite (Fe3O4) suspensions, superparamagnetic, and equipped with robust navigation capability in various biofluids. The innate properties of the microalgae allowed in vivo fluorescence imaging and remote diagnostic sensing without the need for any surface modification. Furthermore, in vivo magnetic resonance imaging tracked a swarm of microswimmers inside rodent stomachs, a deep organ where fluorescence-based imaging ceased to work because of its penetration limitation. Meanwhile, the microswimmers were able to degrade and exhibited selective cytotoxicity to cancer cell lines, subject to the thickness of the Fe3O4 coating, which could be tailored via the dip-coating process. The biohybrid microrobots reported herein represent a microrobotic platform that could be further developed for in vivo imaging–guided therapy and a proof of concept for the engineering of multifunctional microrobotic and nanorobotic devices.

Modeling and Swimming Property Characterizations of Scaled-Up Helical Microswimmers

Micro- and nanorobots capable of controlled propulsion at low Reynolds number are foreseen to change many aspects of medicine by enabling targeted diagnosis and therapy, and minimally invasive surgery. Several kinds of helical swimmers with different heads actuated by a rotating magnetic field have been proposed in prior works. Beyond these proofs of concepts, this paper aims to obtain an optimized design of the helical swimmers adapted to low Reynolds numbers. For this, we designed an experimental setup and scaled-up helical nanobelt swimmers with different head and tail coatings to compare their rotational propulsion characteristics. We found in this paper that the head shape of a helical swimmer does not influence the shape of the rotational propulsion characteristics curve, but it influences the cutoff frequency values. The rotational propulsion characteristics of the helical swimmers with a magnetic head or a magnetic tail are different. The helical swimmers with uniformly coated magnetic tails do not show a cutoff frequency, whereas the ones with a magnetic head exhibit a saturation of frequency.

Planar Path Following of 3-D Steering Scaled-Up Helical Microswimmers

Helical microswimmers that are capable of propulsion at low Reynolds numbers have great potential for numerous applications. Several kinds of artificial magnetic-actuated helical microswimmers have been designed by researchers. However, they are primarily open-loop controlled. This paper aims to investigate methods of closed-loop control of a magnetic-actuated helical swimmer at low Reynolds number by using visual feedback. For many in-vitro applications, helical swimmers should pass through a defined path, for example along channels with no prerequisite on the velocity profile along the path. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to achieve a velocity-independent planar path following task. Since the planar path following is based on 3-D steering control of the helical swimmer, a 3-D pose estimation of a helical swimmer is introduced based on the real-time visual tracking with a stereo vision system. The contribution of this paper is in two parts: The 3-D steering of a helical swimmer is demonstrated by visual servo control; and the path following of a straight line with visual servo control is achieved, then compared with open-loop control. We further expect that with this visual servo control method, the helical swimmers will be able to follow reference paths at the microscale.

On-Demand Disassembly of Paramagnetic Nanoparticle Chains for Microrobotic Cargo Delivery

Paramagnetic nanoparticles are considered as attractive building blocks, particularly for robotic delivery of drugs. Although paramagnetic nanoparticles can be effectively gathered and transported using external magnetic fields, the disassembly process is yet to be fully investigated to avoid the formation of aggregations. In this paper, we report a novel method of controllable disassembly of paramagnetic nanoparticle chains using a predefined dynamic magnetic field. The dynamic field is capable of performing spreading and fragmentation of the particle chains simultaneously. Using the magnetic dipole–dipole repulsive forces, the final area covered by the particle chains swells up to 545% of the initial area. The final length distribution presents a strong relationship with the frequency of the dynamic field in deionized (DI) water and two kinds of biofluids. An analytical model of phase lag is proposed, which shows good agreement with the experimental results. Furthermore, we also present an assembly process using a rotating magnetic field, indicating that the assembly disassembly process is reversible. In addition, batch-cargo delivery of polystyrene microbeads using the nanoparticle chains as swarm-like nanorobots is demonstrated.

Scaled-up helical nanobelt modeling and simulation at low reynolds numbers

Micro and nanorobots can change many aspects of medicine by enabling targeted diagnosis and therapy, and minimal invasive surgery. A helical nanobelt with a magnetic head was proposed as a microrobot driven by rotating magnetic field in prior works. Magnetically coated tails were already shown in some works. However the control of such surface magnetic tails is not clearly realized yet. This paper aims to obtain control parameters for the modeling and simulation of the influence of surface magnets onto the swimming performances. For this, we created scaled-up helical nanobelts and the experimental testbed to get the control parameters and to prepare future closed-loop control.

Characterization of three-dimensional steering for helical swimmers

Helical microswimmers capable of propulsion at low Reynolds numbers have been proposed for many applications. However, closed-loop controlled helical swimmers are still challenging because of the limits of optical tracking, and a lack of control parameters lying on the swimming characteristics of both linear propulsion and steering. Although the linear propulsion characteristics of helical swimmers were extensively studied, the steering characteristics have not yet been clearly shown. Helical microswimmers are efficient in propulsion, whereas their high surface-to-volume ratio limits the steering performances. In this paper, we characterized both the direction and inclination steering using a real-time visual tracking of orientation. The direction steering efficiency could be increased in terms of response time with a higher inclination angle both in floating conditions and on a sticky substrate. We thus developed a 3D steering strategy by combining direction and inclination steering to improve the steering performance. We further expect that the characterization of steering performance can contribute to defining the control parameters for future closed-loop control.

Morphologies and swimming characteristics of rotating magnetic swimmers with soft tails at low Reynolds numbers

Helical microswimmers capable of propulsion at low Reynolds numbers have been proposed for numerous applications. Several different kinds of helical swimmers inspired by E. coli bacteria have been proposed by researchers, and most of them have rigid helical tails. However, high softness could make swimmers more adaptive in confined environments for biomedical applications. This paper aims to study the morphologies and the swimming characteristics of magnetically actuated swimmers with belt-like soft tails initially straight at low Reynolds numbers. We found that a swimmer with a soft tail during rotations shows different morphologies: a twisted shape until the input frequency increases to a threshold frequency, and a helical shape until a step-out frequency. Beyond the stepout frequency, the shape of the soft tail becomes irregular. The soft tail swimmers with different lengths show similar swimming velocities at same rotational frequencies. However, their maximal swimming velocities are different because of the varied step-out frequencies. The interactions between the soft tails reduce the swimming velocity, and this influence increases with the rotational frequency. Thus, the swimming performance is not improved by doubling the number of soft tails in our experiments.

Swimming Characteristics of Bioinspired Helical Microswimmers Based on Soft Lotus-Root Fibers

Various kinds of helical swimmers inspired by E. coli bacteria have been developed continually in many types of researches, but most of them are proposed by the rigid bodies. For the targeted drug delivery, the rigid body may hurt soft tissues of the working region with organs. Due to this problem, the biomedical applications of helical swimmers may be restricted. However, the helical microswimmers with the soft and deformable body are appropriate and highly adaptive in a confined environment. Thus, this paper presents a lotus-root-based helical microswimmer, which is fabricated by the fibers of lotus-root coated with magnetic nanoparticles to active under the magnetic fields. The helical microstructures are derived from the intrinsic biological structures of the fibers of the lotus-root. This paper aims to study the swimming characteristic of lotus-root-based microswimmers with deformable helical bodies. In the initial step under the uniform magnetic actuation, the helical microswimmers are bent lightly due to the heterogeneous distribution of the internal stress, and then they undergo a swimming motion which is a spindle-like rotation locomotion. Our experiments report that the microswimmers with soft bodies can locomote faster than those with rigid bodies. Moreover, we also find that the curvature of the shape decreases as a function of actuating field frequency which is related to the deformability of lotus-root fibers.

Steering micro-robotic swarm by dynamic actuating fields

We present a general solution for steering microrobotic swarm by dynamic actuating fields. In our approach, the motion of micro-robots is controlled by changing the actuating direction of a field applied to them. The time-series sequence of actuating fields directions can be computed automatically. Given a target position in the domain of swarm, a governing field is first constructed to provide optimal moving directions at every points. Following these directions, a robot can be driven to the target efficiently. However, when working with a crowd of micro-robots, the optimal moving directions on different agents can contradict with each other. To overcome this difficulty, we develop a novel steering algorithm to compute a statistically optimal actuating direction at each time frame. Following a sequence of these actuating directions, a crowd of micro-robots can be transported to the target region effectively. Our steering strategy of swarm has been verified on a platform that generates magnetic fields with unique actuating directions. Experimental tests taken on aggregated magnetic micro-particles are quite encouraging.