For biomedical applications, such as single cell manipulation, it is important to fabricate microstructures that can be powered and controlled wirelessly in fluidic environments. In this letter, we describe the construction and operation of truly micron-sized, biocompatible ferromagnetic microtransporters driven by external magnetic fields. Microtransporters were fabricated using a simple, single step fabrication method and can be produced in large numbers. We demonstrate that they can be navigated to manipulate single cells with micron-size precision without disturbing the local environment.

Controllable propulsion of microscale and nanoscale devices enhanced with additional functionality would enable the realization of miniaturized robotic swimmers applicable to transport and assembly, actuators, and drug delivery systems. Following biological examples, existing magnetically actuated microswimmers have been designed to use flexibility or chirality, presenting fabrication challenges. Here we show that, contrary to biomimetic expectations, magnetically actuated geometries with neither flexibility nor chirality can produce propulsion, through both experimental demonstration and a theoretical analysis, which elucidates the fundamental constraints on micropropulsion via magnetetic rotation. Our results advance existing paradigms of low-Reynolds-number propulsion, possibly enabling simpler fabrication and design of microswimmers and nanoswimmers.

The automatic parking assist system is one of the key components in future automobiles. Path planning of a car-like robot is difficult because of non-holonomic constraints. In this study, the authors propose a practical path planning algorithm for the car-parking control problem. Reachable regions from a goal can be easily computed using the proposed scheme. A variety of candidate paths can be generated by using conventional back-propagation scheme. Finally, we can obtain optimal solutions with respect to performance measures such as collision safety, moving distance, control efforts and so forth. The presented simulation results clearly show that the proposed scheme provides useful solutions.

In this paper, we describe how motile microorganisms can be integrated with engineered microstructures to develop a micro-bio-robotic system. SU-8 microstructures blotted with swarmer cells of Serratia Marcescens in a monolayer are propelled by the bacteria in the absence of any environmental stimulus. We call such microstructures with bacteria MicroBioRobots (MBRs) and the uncontrolled motion in the absence of stimuli self actuation. Our paper has two primary contributions. First, we demonstrate the control of MBRs using self actuation and DC electric fields, and develop an experimentally validated mathematical model for the MBRs. This model allows us to use self actuation and electrokinetic actuation to steer the MBR to any position and orientation in a planar micro channel. Second, we combine our experimental setup and a feedback control algorithm to steer robots with micrometer accuracy in two spatial dimensions. We describe the fabrication process for MBRs and show experimental results demonstrating actuation and control.