Amoeba‐Inspired Magnetic Venom Microrobots

Abstract

Nature provides a successful evolutionary direction for single‐celled organisms to solve complex problems and complete survival tasks – pseudopodium. Amoeba, a unicellular protozoan, can produce temporary pseudopods in any direction by controlling the directional flow of protoplasm to perform important life activities such as environmental sensing, motility, predation, and excretion. However, creating robotic systems with pseudopodia to emulate environmental adaptability and tasking capabilities of natural amoeba or amoeboid cells remains challenging. Here, this work presents a strategy that uses alternating magnetic fields to reconfigure magnetic droplet into Amoeba‐like microrobot, and the mechanisms of pseudopodia generation and locomotion are analyzed. By simply adjusting the field direction, microrobots switch in monopodia, bipodia, and locomotion modes, performing all pseudopod operations such as active contraction, extension, bending, and amoeboid movement. The pseudopodia endow droplet robots with excellent maneuverability to adapt to environmental variations, including spanning 3D terrains and swimming in bulk liquids. Inspired by the “Venom,” the phagocytosis and parasitic behaviors have also been investigated. Parasitic droplets inherit all the capabilities of amoeboid robot, expanding their applicable scenarios such as reagent analysis, microchemical reactions, calculi removal, and drug‐mediated thrombolysis. This microrobot may provide fundamental understanding of single‐celled livings, and potential applications in biotechnology and biomedicine.

Light‐Powered Self‐Adaptive Mesostructured Microrobots for Simultaneous Microplastics Trapping and Fragmentation via in situ Surface Morphing

“…[ 25–31 ] It is also worth noting that in addition to light‐propelled micro/nanorobots, magnetic micro/nanorobots have also played an invaluable role in soft robotics, with an emphasis on environmental and biomedical applications. [ 32–34 ]…”

“…[25][26][27][28][29][30][31] It is also worth noting that in addition to light-propelled micro/nanorobots, magnetic micro/nanorobots have also played an invaluable role in soft robotics, with an emphasis on environmental and biomedical applications. [32][33][34] Our group has developed a Pt-Pd/hematite Janus structure to fragment polymers; for example, high-molecular mass PEG was photofragmented under UV irradiation. [35] We demonstrated that we can digest and decompose various solid polymers using BiVO 4 and Bi 2 WO 6 microrobots.…”

Millirobot Based on a Phase-Transformable Magnetorheological Liquid Metal

“…In recent years, droplet robots have received much attention due to their excellent performance, and a large number of droplet robots have been proposed that can realize reconfigurable and adaptive driving in different environments, including ferrofluid droplet robots, − water droplet robots, , organic droplet robots, and liquid metal droplet robots. − The droplet robots are human and environmentally friendly, as the flexibility of droplet robots can cause less damage to the surroundings or the objects in contact with the robot. Due to their liquid nature, droplet robots can be reconfigured and realize large-scale deformation without limitation.…”

“…Compared with those actuated by other actuation methods including electric field, light, , and thermal field, magnetically actuated droplet robots can be controlled by using noninvasive magnetic fields to accomplish complex operations and on-demand tasks without generating heat and pollution and the robot is not affected by the object light transmittance as well. Thus, human and environmentally friendly droplet robots play a significant role in microfluidics, − object manipulation, ,, chemical reactions, ,, targeted drug delivery, ,− and pressure sensor . However, existing droplet robots always struggle to maintain fixed and complex shapes due to their fluidity, which makes them difficult to manipulate objects with large inertia.…”

Multimodal Locomotion of Magnetic Droplet Robots Using Orthogonal Pairs of Coils

“…For instance, a novel amoeba‐inspired magnetic droplet robot has been developed, which can perform applications such as in situ chemical reactions, thrombolysis, and phagocytosis. [ 14 ] These magnetic elastomers and fluid‐like magnetic robots (hereafter referred to as droplet robots) exhibit high deformability, enabling them to modify their shape to match the geometry of the surrounding environment, thereby facilitating their movement through tight channels. They also possess the capability to divide into smaller robots (fission) or amalgamate into larger robots (fusion).…”