3D Printing System of Magnetic Anisotropy for Artificial Cilia

Abstract

In this paper, we developed a new 3D-printing system for magnetic elastomer, and demonstrated to fabricate artificial cilia. Natural cilia are hair-like organ found in nature. They are effective fluidic system in the natural world that are widely observed on surfaces of microorganisms of creatures, such as Paramecium and throat surface of mammals. Recently, the motion of cilia has been analyzed and mimicked for developing soft actuator, for example, some studies on artificial cilia driven magnetically have been reported. They are small soft actuators, and there are various manufacturing methods for these actuators depending on materials and products. Among them, authors have already developed the concept of a printing system that not only forms a three-dimensional object but also prints out the deformation of the structure. This system can fabricate various shapes of soft actuators without any assembly. In this report, we utilized UV-curable urethane acrylate as a more flexible material than that used in the previous reports, and fabricated artificial cilia by the printer. We set magnetic anisotropy to each cilium and mimicked a metachronal wave, sequential action of plural cilia that causes effective flow.

Miniaturization of worm-type soft robot actuated by magnetic field

“…For further miniaturization, we should consider the effect of the surface effect, and also to develop a new fabrication tools. We are now developing 3D printing system for the magnetic elastomer or gel material [34][35][36][37] , which would be a powerful tool for this purpose.…”

“…To downsize the robot, we also need a better fabrication tool. We are now working on development of a 3D printing system for magnetic soft robotics [34][35][36][37] . UV curable elastomer or gel material is employed for this system.…”

“…For this purpose, we employed silicone elastomer and rubber magnetic material to downsize the robot. Magnetic elastomer could be used for many purposes, for example, dynamic control of the mechanical properties 19) , energy harvesting 20) , and of course various kinds of soft actuators [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] . There have been many reports for bio-mimic approach using magnetic elastomers, such as artificial cilia [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] and worm-like robots 33,34) .…”

Bio-mimic Motion of Elastic Material Dispersed with Hard-magnetic Particles

“…As we have already shown in previous researches, ciliary movement is asymmetric [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. The stroke pattern of a natural cilium consists of 2 different strokes; the effective stroke and the recovery stroke.…”

“…If we could apply biomimicry structures of these natural cilia, they would be useful engineering tools. We utilized magnetic elastomer [7][8][9] to mimic the motion of flexible structures in natural cilia [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”