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Title: 3D Control of Rotating Millimeter-Scale Swimmers Through Obstacles
This study investigates the high speed 3D navigation of rotating millimeter-scale swimmers. The swimmers have a spiral-shaped surface to ensure propulsion. The rotational movement is used for propulsion and, in future work, could provide the power needed to remove blood clots. For instance, an abrasive tip could be used to progressively grind a blood clot. An algorithm to perform 3D control of rotating millimeterscale swimmers was implemented and tested experimentally. The swimmers can follow a trajectory and can navigate without touching the walls inside a tube having a diameter of 15 mm. This diameter is smaller than the average diameter of the distal descending aorta, which is the smallest section of the aorta. Several swimmers designs were built and tested. The maximum velocity recorded for our best swimmer was 103.6 mm/s with a rotational speed of 477.5 rotations per second.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1553063 1619278 1646566
NSF-PAR ID:
10130232
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2019, Montreal CA)
Page Range / eLocation ID:
8890 to 8896
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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