Wenqi Hu

Biomedical Applications of Untethered Mobile Milli/Microrobots

Untethered robots miniaturized to the length scale of millimeter and below attract growing attention for the prospect of transforming many aspects of health care and bioengineering. As the robot size goes down to the order of a single cell, previously inaccessible body sites would become available for high-resolution in situ and in vivo manipulations. This unprecedented direct access would enable an extensive range of minimally invasive medical operations. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of the current advances in biomedical untethered mobile milli/microrobots. We put a special emphasis on the potential impacts of biomedical microrobots in the near future. Finally, we discuss the existing challenges and emerging concepts associated with designing such a miniaturized robot for operation inside a biological environment for biomedical applications.

Micro-assembly using optically controlled bubble microrobots

Bubbles controlled by optically induced heating were made to function as novel microrobots for micromanipulation and micro-assembly. Using light patterns generated by a commercial computer projector, bubble microrobots were controlled and used to manipulate glass microbeads and perform the micro-assembly of micro-blocks and cell-encapsulating hydrogel beads. Two manipulation modes, pulling and pushing, were used to move micro-objects into place and manipulate glass beads with a velocity of up to 350 μm/s. The simultaneous independent control of three bubble robots was also demonstrated.

Continuous Electrowetting of Non-toxic Liquid Metal for RF Applications

Continuous electrowetting (CEW) is demonstrated to be an effective actuation mechanism for reconfigurable radio frequency (RF) devices that use non-toxic liquid-metal tuning elements. Previous research has shown CEW is an efficient means of electrically inducing motion in a liquid-metal slug, but precise control of the slugs position within fluidic channels has not been demonstrated. Here, the precise positioning of liquid-metal slugs is achieved using CEW actuation in conjunction with channels designed to minimize the liquid-metal surface energy at discrete locations. This approach leverages the high surface tension of liquid metal to control its resting position with submillimeter accuracy. The CEW actuation and fluidic channel design were optimized to create reconfigurable RF devices. In addition, solutions for the reliable actuation of a gallium-based, non-toxic liquid-metal alloy (Galinstan) are presented that mitigate the tendency of the alloy to form a surface oxide layer capable of wetting to the channel walls, inhibiting motion. A reconfigurable slot antenna utilizing these techniques to achieve a 15.2% tunable frequency bandwidth is demonstrated.

Shape-programmable magnetic soft matter

Significance At small scales, shape-programmable magnetic materials have significant potential to achieve mechanical functionalities that are unattainable by traditional miniature machines. Unfortunately, these materials have only been programmed for a small number of specific applications, as previous work can only rely on human intuition to approximate the required magnetization profile and actuating magnetic fields for such materials. Here, we propose a universal programming methodology that can automatically generate the desired magnetization profile and actuating fields for soft materials to achieve new time-varying shapes. The proposed method can enable other researchers to fully capitalize the potential of shape-programming technologies, allowing them to create a wide range of novel soft active surfaces and devices that are critical in robotics, material science, and medicine. Shape-programmable matter is a class of active materials whose geometry can be controlled to potentially achieve mechanical functionalities beyond those of traditional machines. Among these materials, magnetically actuated matter is particularly promising for achieving complex time-varying shapes at small scale (overall dimensions smaller than 1 cm). However, previous work can only program these materials for limited applications, as they rely solely on human intuition to approximate the required magnetization profile and actuating magnetic fields for their materials. Here, we propose a universal programming methodology that can automatically generate the required magnetization profile and actuating fields for soft matter to achieve new time-varying shapes. The universality of the proposed method can therefore inspire a vast number of miniature soft devices that are critical in robotics, smart engineering surfaces and materials, and biomedical devices. Our proposed method includes theoretical formulations, computational strategies, and fabrication procedures for programming magnetic soft matter. The presented theory and computational method are universal for programming 2D or 3D time-varying shapes, whereas the fabrication technique is generic only for creating planar beams. Based on the proposed programming method, we created a jellyfish-like robot, a spermatozoid-like undulating swimmer, and an artificial cilium that could mimic the complex beating patterns of its biological counterpart.

An opto-thermocapillary cell micromanipulator

An opto-thermocapillary micromanipulator (OTMm) capable of single-cell manipulation and patterning is presented here. The OTMm uses a near-infrared laser focused on an ITO substrate to induce thermocapillary convection that can trap and transport living cells with forces of up to 40 pN. The OTMm complements other cell-manipulation technologies, such as optical tweezers and dielectrophoresis, as it is less dependent upon the optical and electrical properties of the working environment, and can function in many types of cell culture media. The OTMm was used to construct single-cell matrices in two popular hydrogels: PEGDA and agarose. High viability rates were observed in both hydrogels, and cells patterned in agarose spread and migrated during subsequent culturing.

Small-scale soft-bodied robot with multimodal locomotion

Untethered small-scale (from several millimetres down to a few micrometres in all dimensions) robots that can non-invasively access confined, enclosed spaces may enable applications in microfactories such as the construction of tissue scaffolds by robotic assembly, in bioengineering such as single-cell manipulation and biosensing, and in healthcare such as targeted drug delivery and minimally invasive surgery. Existing small-scale robots, however, have very limited mobility because they are unable to negotiate obstacles and changes in texture or material in unstructured environments. Of these small-scale robots, soft robots have greater potential to realize high mobility via multimodal locomotion, because such machines have higher degrees of freedom than their rigid counterparts. Here we demonstrate magneto-elastic soft millimetre-scale robots that can swim inside and on the surface of liquids, climb liquid menisci, roll and walk on solid surfaces, jump over obstacles, and crawl within narrow tunnels. These robots can transit reversibly between different liquid and solid terrains, as well as switch between locomotive modes. They can additionally execute pick-and-place and cargo-release tasks. We also present theoretical models to explain how the robots move. Like the large-scale robots that can be used to study locomotion, these soft small-scale robots could be used to study soft-bodied locomotion produced by small organisms.

Micro-assembly using optically controlled bubble microrobots in saline solution

Bubbles in saline solution were controlled by optically induced heating, and made to function as microrobots for micromanipulation and micro-assembly. Using a 980-nm laser, bubble microrobots in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) were used to manipulate glass microbeads and cell-laden hydrogel beads. Micro-assembly of glass beads in PBS was also demonstrated. Bubble microrobot actuation in saline solution was demonstrated at velocities of up to 4 mm/s.

Interactive actuation of multiple opto-thermocapillary flow-addressed bubble microrobots.

Opto-thermocapillary flow-addressed bubble (OFB) microrobots are a potential tool for the efficient transportation of micro-objects. This microrobot system uses light patterns to generate thermal gradients within a liquid medium, creating thermocapillary forces that actuate the bubble microrobots. An interactive control system that includes scanning mirrors and a touchscreen interface was developed to address up to ten OFB microrobots. Using this system, the parallel and cooperative transportation of 20-μm-diameter polystyrene beads was demonstrated.

A tunable low-pass filter using a liquid-metal reconfigurable periodic defected ground structure

A new type of tunable low-pass filter is demonstrated that uses liquid metal to reconfigure a defected ground structure (DGS). By filling in different DGS lattices with Galinstan liquid metal, the tunable low-pass filter provides tuning of up to eight cutoff frequencies. Measurements of four of the cutoff frequencies show a 62% tuning range while maintaining a stopband of more than 5 GHz.

Cooperative micromanipulation using optically controlled bubble microrobots

Optically actuated bubbles in oil were used as microrobots. Simulations of the thermocapillary fluid flow within the oil phase are used to illustrate the mechanisms driving the bubble actuation. Parallel manipulation of sub-millimeter objects including glass beads and hydrogel beads was demonstrated. These capabilities show the potential for using the bubble microrobots in biomedical or other microassembly applications.