Deformable ferrofluid-based millirobot with high motion accuracy and high output force

• Published in: Applied physics letters 2021-03, Vol.118 (13)
• Main Authors: Chen, Dixiao, Yang, Ziping, Ji, Yiming, Dai, Yuguo, Feng, Lin, Arai, Fumihito
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accuracy; Applied physics; Bioengineering; Biophysics; Correlation coefficients; Ferrofluids; Formability; Hydrophobicity; Paramagnetism; Pneumatics; Position errors; Robot dynamics; Robots; Tissues; Trajectories
• ISSN: 0003-6951; 1077-3118
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0042893

The magnetically actuated robot has valuable potential in biomedicine, bioengineering, and biophysics for its capability to precisely manipulate particles or biological tissues. However, the deformability of rigid robots with predetermined shapes is limited, which constricts their functions and causes inconvenience for robots' movement in constricted space. In this study, we proposed a feasible and efficient ferrofluid-based robot for the transportation of tiny particles and blocks. In addition, a method to generate a patterned magnetic field is also introduced to model a ferrofluid-based robot with an adaptive shape. Benefiting from the paramagnetism and fluidity of the ferrofluid-based robot, it also demonstrates outstanding motion accuracy and output force on a superhydrophobic surface. Because of its excellent motion characteristics, high motion accuracy, and high measured output force, the proposed ferrofluid-based robot has great advantages in the field of microoperation. The correlation coefficient between the motion trajectory of the ferrofluid-based robot and the motion trajectory of the micro-stages is 0.9967. The position error is less than 1.5% of the total stroke.