Related papers: Dumbbell micro-robot driven by flow oscillations
Recently, we demonstrated that the local heating of degassed water can generate water vapor microbubbles and induce a rapid flow around the bubble. Although flow generation involves the self-excited oscillation of bubbles at a local heating…
Transport of fluid through a pipe is essential for the operation of macroscale machines and microfluidic devices. Conventional fluids only flow in response to external pressure. We demonstrate that an active isotropic fluid, comprised of…
We analyse the dynamics of a two dimensional system of interacting active dumbbells. We characterise the mean-square displacement, linear response function and deviation from the equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation theorem as a function of…
We derive the stress tensor of a rigid dumbbell by using the virtual work method. In the virtual work method, we virtually apply a small deformation to the system, and relate the change of the energy to the work done by the stress tensor. A…
We investigate flow-driven amoeboid motility as exhibited by microplasmodia of Physarum polycephalum. A poroelastic two-phase model with rigid boundaries is extended to the case of free boundaries and substrate friction. The cytoskeleton is…
We report experimental measurements of the translational and rotational dynamics of a large buoyant sphere in isotropic turbulence. We introduce an efficient method to simultaneously determine the position and (absolute) orientation of a…
Yield-stress fluids naturally trap small bubbles when their buoyancy applies an insufficient stress to induce local yielding of the material. Under acoustic excitation, trapped bubbles can be driven into volumetric oscillations and apply an…
In this paper we study the evolution of a small rigid body in a viscous incompressible fluid, in particular we show that a small particle is not accelerated by the fluid in the limit when its size converges to zero under a lower bound on…
A system of particles with motility variable in terms of a vision-type of perception is here investigated by a combination of Langevin dynamics simulations in two-dimensional systems and an analytical approach based on conservation law…
We explore the dynamics of a nanoscale doubly-clamped beam that is under high tension, immersed in a viscous fluid, and driven externally by a spatially varying drive force. We develop a theoretical description that is valid for all…
The self-propelled motion of microscopic bodies immersed in a fluid medium is studied using molecular dynamics simulation. The advantage of the atomistic approach is that the detailed level of description allows complete freedom in…
In most macro-scale robotics systems , propulsion and controls are enabled through a physical tether or complex on-board electronics and batteries. A tether simplifies the design process but limits the range of motion of the robot, while…
True microrobots, in contrast with externally controlled microparticles, must harvest or carry their own source of energy, as well as their own (preferably programmable) microcontroller of actuators for locomotion, using information…
In this paper we study the dynamics of a small rigid body in a viscous incompressible fluid in dimension two and three. More precisely we investigate the trajectory of the rigid body in the limit when the its mass and its size tend to zero.…
Motivated by strategies for targeted microfluidic transport of droplets, we investigate how sessile droplets can be steered toward a preferred direction using travelling waves in substrate wettability or deformations of the substrate. To…
This paper describes the process and challenges behind the design and development of a micro-gravity enabling aerial robot. The vehicle, designed to provide at minimum 4 seconds of micro-gravity at an accuracy of .001 g's, is designed with…
Microbubbles excited by acoustic fields inside water oscillate, and generate acoustic radiation forces and drag-induced acoustic streaming. These forces can be harnessed in various biomedical applications such as targeted drug delivery and…
The phenomenon of tumbling of microscopic objects is commonly associated with shear flows. We address the question of whether tumbling can also occur in stretching-dominated flows. To answer this, we study the dynamics of a semi-flexible…
We analyse small-amplitude oscillations of a weakly viscous electrically conducting liquid drop in a strong uniform DC magnetic field. An asymptotic solution is obtained showing that the magnetic field does not affect the shape eigenmodes,…
Microswimmer suspensions self-organize into complex spatio-temporal flow patterns, including vortex lattices and mesoscale turbulence. Here we explore the consequences for the motion of passive tracers, based on a continuum model for the…