Swimming like algae: biomimetic soft artificial cilia

Sareh, Sina; Rossiter, Jonathan; Conn, Andrew T.; Drescher, Knut; Goldstein, Raymond E.

doi:10.1098/rsif.2012.0666

Cited by 78 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…For many cilia arrays, a wave-like pattern has been found and described, which is called a metachronal wave (MCW) (10). Biomimetic systems of externally actuated semiflexible strings, like chains of magnetic beads, have been proposed to use the cilia propulsion mechanism in artificial nanomachines and microfluidic devices (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17).Theoretical approaches to investigate hydrodynamic interactions between cilia and the formation of metachronal waves fall into three categories: (i) highly simplified model systems, designed to elucidate the mechanism of hydrodynamic synchronization of many active agents (18-23); (ii) models of an actively driven semiflexible filament, which mimic the beat of a real cilium (24-27); and (iii) models of a filament, with a beat shape obtained from maximizing the pumping efficiency (28,29).The first class of models consists either of rotors-spheres orbiting on quasi-elliptical trajectories near a wall (19-22)-or rowers-spheres that oscillate on a line with different hydrodynamic radii in the two directions of motion (18, 23)-in both cases under a constant driving force. Two rotors have been found to show asynchronous dynamics-taken as an indication for metachronal coordination-if their distance is close enough or their relative orientation is perpendicular to the beat direction (19).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Emergence of metachronal waves in cilia arrays

Elgeti

Gompper

2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

352

374

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Propulsion by cilia is a fascinating and universal mechanism in biological organisms to generate fluid motion on the cellular level. Cilia are hair-like organelles, which are found in many different tissues and many uni-and multicellular organisms. Assembled in large fields, cilia beat neither randomly nor completely synchronously-instead they display a striking self-organization in the form of metachronal waves (MCWs). It was speculated early on that hydrodynamic interactions provide the physical mechanism for the synchronization of cilia motion. Theory and simulations of physical model systems, ranging from arrays of highly simplified actuated particles to a few cilia or cilia chains, support this hypothesis. The main questions are how the individual cilia interact with the flow field generated by their neighbors and synchronize their beats for the metachronal wave to emerge and how the properties of the metachronal wave are determined by the geometrical arrangement of the cilia, like cilia spacing and beat direction. Here, we address these issues by large-scale computer simulations of a mesoscopic model of 2D cilia arrays in a 3D fluid medium. We show that hydrodynamic interactions are indeed sufficient to explain the self-organization of MCWs and study beat patterns, stability, energy expenditure, and transport properties. We find that the MCW can increase propulsion velocity more than 3-fold and efficiency almost 10-fold-compared with cilia all beating in phase. This can be a vital advantage for ciliated organisms and may be interesting to guide biological experiments as well as the design of efficient microfluidic devices and artificial microswimmers.active matter | mesoscale hydrodynamics | dynamical self-organization F luid transport and locomotion due to motile cilia are ubiquitous phenomena in biological organisms on the cellular level (1, 2). Motile cilia are found in many different tissues-from the brain (3) to the lung and the oviduct-and in many uni-and multicellular organisms-from Clamydomonas (4) and Volvox (5, 6) algae to Paramecium. Motile cilia on the surface of a cell perform an active whip-like motion, which propels the fluid along the surface of cells and tissues. In motile cilia, the beat consists of a fast power stroke in which the cilium has an elongated shape and a slower recovery stroke in which the cilium is curved and closer to the cell surface (Fig. 1A). Due to their typical size in the range of 5-20 μm length and 0.25-1.0 μm thickness, the dynamics of cilia in a fluid are dominated by the balance of force generated by motor proteins (7,8) and fluid viscosity and are thus characterized by small-Reynolds-number hydrodynamics (9). Cilia sometimes act together in pairs, such as in the breast-stroke-like motion of Clamydomonas (4), but much more often in large arrays, such as on the surface of Paramecium and Opalina or the tissue lining the airways of the lung. In all these cases, the beat of different cilia is not random, but strongly synchronized. For many cilia arrays, a wave-like pa...

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergence of metachronal waves in cilia arrays

Elgeti

Gompper

2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

352

374

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This observation is complementary to recent advances in morphological computation and entity embodiment [26]; hence, we emphasise that artificial cilia designs should focus upon these principles. Whilst recent advances in biomimetic cilia have begun to make use of soft robotics approaches [4,6], none have yet capitalised upon anything but a compliant body.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Functional prototypes of artificial cilia include: individual macro-scale cilia that bend by virtue of being composed of an electro-active polymer [6]; self-assembling superparamagnetic bead chains that may be induced to beat through applying an external magnetic field [7]; arrays of vibrating motor-driven macroscale silicon cilia [4]; cilia-inspired microelectromechanical systems devices [8]; cilia-like micromechanical electrostatic actuators for use within microfluidic circuitry [9]; decentralised cellular automaton controllers of cilia-inspired paddles in swimming robots [10]; photosensitive liquid crystal microactuators [11]. Whilst the biomimetic cilia developed to date are all ingenuitive examples of bio-inspired design, none have exhibited the desirable emergent features previously described and very few mimic more than a single aspect of cilia design/control.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Particle sorting by Paramecium cilia arrays

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Motile cilia are cell-surface organelles whose purposes, in ciliated protists and certain ciliated vertebrate epithelia, include generating fluid flow, sensing and substance uptake. Certain properties of cilia arrays, such as beating synchronisation and manipulation of external proximate particulate matter, are considered emergent, but remain incompletely characterised despite these phenomena having being the subject of extensive modelling. This study constitutes a laboratory experimental characterisation of one of the emergent properties of motile cilia: manipulation of adjacent particulates. The work demonstrates through automated videomicrographic particle tracking that interactions between microparticles and somatic cilia arrays of the ciliated model organism Paramecium caudatum constitute a form of rudimentary 'sorting'. Small particles are drawn into the organism's proximity by ciliainduced fluid currents at all times, whereas larger particles may be held immobile at a distance from the cell margin when the cell generates characteristic feeding currents in the surrounding media. These findings can contribute to the design and fabrication of biomimetic cilia, with potential applications to the study of ciliopathies.

show abstract

“…The intriguing structure of a cilium has inspired building and control of artificial ones as flow generators. The fabrication technics involve, among other, magnetically actuated structures [11] and soft, electro-active polymer approaches [20].…”

Section: Biological Coordinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metachronal Waves in Cellular Automata: Cilia-Like Manipulation in Actuator Arrays

Georgilas

Adamatzky

Barr

et al. 2014

Studies in Computational Intelligence

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Paramecium is covered by cilia. It uses the cilia to swim and transport food particles to its mouth. The cilia are synchronised into a collective action by propagating membrane potential and mechanical properties of their underlying membrane and the liquid phase environment. The cilia inspired us to design and manufacture a hardware prototype of a massively parallel actuator array, emulated membrane potentials via a discrete excitable medium controller and mechanical properties based on vibrating motors. The discrete excitable medium is a two-dimensional array of finite automata, where each automaton, or a cell, updates its state depending on states of its closest neighbours. A local interaction between the automata lead to emergence of propagating patterns, waves and gliders. The excitable medium is interfaced with an array of actuators. Patterns travelling on an automaton array manifest patterns of actuation travelling along the array of actuators. In computer models and laboratory experiments with hardware prototypes we imitate transportation of food towards mouth pore of the Paramecium. The hardware actuator arrays proposed could in future replace simple manipulators in demanding micro-scale application.

show abstract

Swimming like algae: biomimetic soft artificial cilia

Cited by 78 publications

References 32 publications

Emergence of metachronal waves in cilia arrays

Emergence of metachronal waves in cilia arrays

Particle sorting by Paramecium cilia arrays

Metachronal Waves in Cellular Automata: Cilia-Like Manipulation in Actuator Arrays

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About