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Developing microrobotic systems for accurate and fast manipulation of microobjects or living cells has the potential to significantly advance biomedical and microfabrication applications. Despite recent progress in this field, comprehensive multistimuli responsive, fast, and precisely controllable microrobots remain limited. In this study, automated position and speed control of acoustically powered, bubble‐based, magnetically steerable microrobots is demonstrated, along with micromanipulation of mammalian cells using these microswimmers. Enhanced control of the microswimmers is achieved by designing and implementing a closed‐loop control system that guides the microrobots along a predetermined path while modulating their speed by adjusting the acoustic frequency near the resonant value. The microrobots are guided to cells, enabling cell manipulation by pulling them with the microrobots. Overall, the results highlight the capability and controllability of these magnetically and acoustically responsive microrobots for future cell‐based applications, including manipulation, delivery, and microsurgery.
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Fabrication of three-lobed magnetic microrobots for cell transportation
Mobile microrobots have the potential to transform medical treatments based on therapeutic delivery. Specifically, microrobots are promising candidates for cell transportation in cell-based therapies. Despite recent progress in cellular manipulation by microrobots, there is a significant need to design and fabricate microrobots to advance the field further. In this work, we present a facile approach to manufacturing three-lobed microrobots by a bench-top procedure. The microrobots are actuated by a harmless magnetic field which makes them biofriendly. Chemically, these microrobots are made of organosilica. The microrobots showed equally good control in both the open-loop and closed-loop settings. The three-lobed microrobots have two modes of motion during the open-loop control experiments. We employed these two modes for single-cell transportation. Our results show that the three-lobed microbots are very promising for cell transportation in a fluid.
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- PAR ID:
- 10451464
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Materials Chemistry B
- ISSN:
- 2050-750X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1039/D3TB00613A
