Related papers: Magnetic Propulsion of Self-Assembled Colloidal Ca…
Physics governing the locomotion of microorganisms and other microsystems is dominated by viscous damping. An effective swimming strategy involves the non-reciprocal and periodic deformations of the considered body. Here, we show that a…
Quadrotors can carry slung loads to hard-to-reach locations at high speed. Since a single quadrotor has limited payload capacities, using a team of quadrotors to collaboratively manipulate a heavy object is a scalable and promising…
Topological protection ensures stability of information and particle transport against perturbations. We explore experimentally and computationally the topologically protected transport of magnetic colloids above spatially inhomogeneous…
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…
As platform size is reduced, the flight of aerial robots becomes increasingly energetically expensive. Limitations on payload and endurance of these small robots have prompted researchers to explore the use of bimodal aerial-surface…
Transporting objects using quadrotors with cables has been widely studied in the literature. However, most of those approaches assume that the cables are previously attached to the load by human intervention. In tasks where multiple objects…
Quasiparticles in liquid crystals, such as torons and skyrmions, represent a new class of topologically protected solitonic excitations, offering a promising route toward soft microrobotics. Here we demonstrate that torons can be propelled…
Collections of simple, self-propelled colloidal particles exhibit complex, emergent dynamical behavior, with promising applications in microrobotics. When confined within a deformable vesicle, self-propelled rods cluster and align,…
Molecular motors are essential to the living, they generate additional fluctuations that boost transport and assist assembly. Self-propelled colloids, that consume energy to move, hold similar potential for the man-made assembly of…
Electrically powered micro- and nanomotors are promising tools for in-vitro single-cell analysis. In particular, single cells can be trapped, transported and electroporated by a Janus particle (JP) using an externally applied electric…
A promising approach to transport cargo at the microscale lies within the use of self-propelled microorganisms, whose motion entrains that of passive particles. However, most applications remain limited to just a few passive particles of…
In this work, two real-time methods to transport magnetic nanowires confined in giant hybrid vesi-cles upon the application of different strategies are studied. The microscale carriers are either mag-netically guided through the viscous…
Recent progress in colloidal science has led to elaborate self-assembled structures whose complexity raises hopes for elaborating new materials. However, the throughputs are extremely low and consequently, the chance to produce materials of…
Microorganisms are able to overcome the thermal randomness of their surroundings by harvesting energy to navigate in viscous fluid environments. In a similar manner, synthetic colloidal microswimmers are capable of mimicking complex…
We describe a simple physical method for trapping and transforming magnetic colloid clusters on a current carrying wire. We use the wire's field as a mould to form colloidal rings and helices on its surface. To transform the initially…
Changes in the geometry and topology of self-assembled membranes underlie diverse processes across cellular biology and engineering. Similar to lipid bilayers, monolayer colloidal membranes have in-plane fluid-like dynamics and out-of-plane…
Complex colloidal cluster morphologies are desirable for the fabrication of advanced materials, such as photonic crystals and meta-materials, and can be formed through evaporation-driven packing. By coupling lattice Boltzmann and discrete…
Active colloids self-organise to a variety of collective states, ranging from highly motile 'molecules' to complex 3D structures. Using large-scale simulations, we show that hydrodynamic interactions, together with a gravity-like aligning…
We demonstrate a novel method to assemble and transport swarms of colloidal particles by combining liquid crystals enabled electrophoresis and photo-sensitive surface patterning. Colloidal particles are propelled in a nematic liquid crystal…
We report a technique to realize reconfigurable colloidal crystals by using the controlled motion of particle defects above an externally modulated magnetic substrate. The transport of particles is induced by applying a uniform rotating…