Abstract A magnetic object subject to an external rotating magnetic field would be rotated due to the alignment tendency between its internal magnetization and the field. Based on this principle, 12 shapes of swimming microrobots around 1 mm long were designed and 3D-printed using biodegradable materials Poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEDGA). Their surface was decorated with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles to provide magnetic responsivity. An array of 12 permanent magnets generated a rotating uniform magnetic field (∼100 mT) to impose magnetic torque, which induces a tumbling motion in the microrobot. We developed a dynamic model that captured the behavior of swimming microrobots of different shapes and showed good agreement with experimental results. Among these 12 shapes, we found that microrobots with equal length, width, and depth performed better. The observed translational speed of the hollow cube microrobot can exceed 17.84 mm s −1 (17.84 body lengths/s) under a rotating magnetic field of 5.26 Hz. These microrobots could swim to the targeted sites in a simplified vessel branch. And a finite element model was created to simulate the motion of the swimming microrobot under a flow rate of 0.062 m s −1 .
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Stability of Soft Magnetic Helical Microrobots
Nano/microrobotic swimmers have many possible biomedical applications such as drug delivery and micro-manipulation. This paper examines one of the most promising classes of these: rigid magnetic microrobots that are propelled through bulk fluid by rotation induced by a rotating magnetic field. Propulsion corresponds to steadily rotating and translating solutions of the dynamics of such microrobots that co-rotate with the magnetic field. To be observed in experiments and be amenable to steering control, such solutions must also be stable to perturbations. In this paper, we analytically derive a criterion for the stability of such steadily rotating solutions for a microrobot made of soft magnetic materials, which have a magnetization that depends on the applied field. This result generalizes previous stability criteria we obtained for microrobots with a permanent magnetization.
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- PAR ID:
- 10174803
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Fluids
- Volume:
- 5
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2311-5521
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 19
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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