Microrobotic platform for mechanical stimulation of swimming microorganism on a chip

Abstract

We propose a microrobotic platform that stimulates swimming microorganisms in a microfluidic chip with high speed and accuracy. The developed platform comprises (1) high-speed microrobots that can generate a millinewton-level driving force, micrometer-level positioning accuracy, and a millimeter per second level drive speed through the actuation of motorized stages with permanent magnets and (2) high-speed online vision sensor capable of capturing images on the order of 1000 frames per second. The specific design and architecture of the proposed platform are also presented. The proposed platform stimulates and observes swimming microorganisms in a microfluidic chip through a mechanical approach. This platform provides on-chip investigation with high functionality that has been difficult to achieve with previous approaches and contributes towards the discovery of previously unknown functions of swimming microorganisms in the bioscience fields.

Mobile Microrobots for In Vitro Biomedical Applications: A Survey

“…Specifically speaking, mobile microrobots; i.e., microrobots that are powered remotely without any physical connection or wiring, with a size ranging from few microns up to a millimeter demonstrated high potential in many microscale applications due to their ability to access small and confined areas. In fact, the biomedical field is one of the major areas that mobile microrobots have shown their high potential in minimal invasive surgery [1], targeted drug delivery [2], regenerative medicine [3], and single-cell investigation [4] to Manuscript received September 21, 2020; revised March 12, 2021; accepted May 19, 2021. This paper was recommended for publication by Editor Arianna Menciassi upon evaluation of the reviewers' comments.…”

Laser Actuated Microgripper Using Optimized Chevron-Shaped Actuator

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