Metin Sitti Managing Director, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Director, Physical Intelligence Department Stuttgart, GERMANY Professor, Carnegie Mellon University Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Institute Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Mobile Micromanipulation using Untethered Magnetic Microrobots

We proposed rotational stick-slip crawling, rolling, and swimming based two- and three-dimensional locomotion methods for untethered magnetic microrobots. Such microrobots could move precisely in enclosed fluidic environments such as lab-on-a-chip devices and potentially inside the human and animal body. They could be used for novel mobile micromanipulation methods where they could manipulate objects with or without contact in fluidic environments. First, we demonstrated contact 2D and 3D assembly of microgels with embedded live cells for tissue engineering applications. Also, using rotational flows, we demonstrated non-contact trapping and transport of microobjects, live cells, and swimming bacteria, which are fragile to handle. Finally, we also proposed a microbubble-based capillary microgripper, which could pick and place micro objects with precise control.