This work describes the development of an integrated analytical system that enables high-throughput density measurements of diamagnetic particles (including cells) using magnetic levitation (MagLev), 96-well plates, and a flatbed scanner. MagLev is a simple and useful technique with which to carry out density-based analysis and separation of a broad range of diamagnetic materials with different physical forms (e.g., liquids, solids, gels, pastes, gums, etc.); one major limitation, however, is the capacity to perform high-throughput density measurements. This work addresses this limitation by (i) re-engineering the shape of the magnetic fields so that the MagLev system is compatible with 96-well plates, and (ii) integrating a flatbed scanner (and simple optical components) to carry out imaging of the samples that levitate in the system. The resulting system is compatible with both biological samples (human erythrocytes) and nonbiological samples (simple liquids and solids, such as 3-chlorotoluene, cholesterol crystals, glass beads, copper powder, and polymer beads). The high-throughput capacity of this integrated MagLev system will enable new applications in chemistry (e.g., analysis and separation of materials) and biochemistry (e.g., cellular responses under environmental stresses) in a simple and label-free format on the basis of a universal property of all matter, i.e., density.

Flapping, gliding, running, crawling, and swimming in animals have all been studied extensively in the past and have served as sources of inspiration for engineering designs. In this paper, we describe the aeromechanics of a mode of locomotion that straddles ground and air: jumping. The subject of our study is the spider cricket of the family Rhaphidophoridae, an animal that is among the most proficient of long-jumpers in nature. The focus of the study is to understand the aeromechanics of the aerial portion of the jump of this animal. The research employs high-speed videogrammetry to track the crickets’ posture and appendage orientation throughout their jumps. Experiments demonstrate that these insects employ carefully controlled and coordinated positioning of their limbs during their jumps so as to increase jump distance and stabilize body posture. Simple phenomenological models based on drag laws indicate that the conformation of the limbs during the latter portion of the jump is stable to pitch and enables these animals to land in a controllable manner. Insights from this study could be useful in the design of micro-robots that exploit jumping as a means of locomotion.

We demonstrate a lensless diffuser-based camera array for large field-of-view imaging. Images are captured from multiple disjoint sensors and the synthetic large format sensing area is recovered by solving a compressive sensing inverse problem.

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