Related papers: Motion Control Simulations for a Magnetically-Coup…
Biological swimmers frequently navigate in geometrically restricted media. We study the prescribed-stroke problem of swimmers confined to a planar viscous membrane embedded in a bulk fluid of different viscosity. In their motion,…
Enabling reaching capabilities in highly redundant continuum robot arms is an active area of research. Existing solutions comprise of task-space controllers, whose proper functioning is still limited to laboratory environments. In contrast,…
Metachronal swimming, the sequential beating of limbs with a small phase lag, is observed in many organisms at various scales, but has been studied mostly in the limits of high or low Reynolds numbers. Motivated by the swimming of brine…
Microscopic swimmers, e.g., chemotactic bacteria and cells, are capable of directed motion by exerting a force on their environment. For asymmetric microswimmers, e.g., bacteria, spermatozoa and many artificial active colloidal particles, a…
Self-propelled micromotors can efficiently convert ambient energy into mechanical motion, which is of great interest for its potential biomedical applications in delivering therapeutics noninvasively. However, navigating these micromotors…
Small organisms (e.g., bacteria) and artificial microswimmers move due to a combination of active swimming and passive Brownian motion. Considering a simplified linear three-sphere swimmer, we study how the swimmer size regulates the…
Microorganisms, such as bacteria and microalgae, often live in habitats consisting of a liquid phase and a plethora of interfaces. The precise ways in which these motile microbes behave in their confined environment remain unclear. Using…
Design of robots at the small scale is a trial-and-error based process, which is costly and time-consuming. There are no good dynamic simulation tools to predict the motion or performance of a microrobot as it moves against a substrate. At…
Magnetically actuated fish-like robots offer promising solutions for underwater exploration due to their miniaturization and agility; however, precise control remains a significant challenge because of nonlinear fluid dynamics, flexible fin…
Coordinating micro-robotic swarms in physiologically realistic, time-dependent fluid environments remains an unsolved challenge for biomedical and environmental applications. We present a hybrid Computational Fluid Dynamics -…
A long-standing engineering problem, the control of soft robots is difficult because of their highly non-linear, heterogeneous, anisotropic, and distributed nature. Here, bridging engineering and biology, a neural reservoir is employed for…
Viscoelasticity governs the locomotion strategies of deformable microorganisms, rendering it a fundamental mechanical property of microbial motility and an integral component in the design of envisioned microbots. Recent studies have shown…
Actuation and control of motion in micro-mechanical systems are technological challenges, since they are accompanied by mechanical friction and wear, principal and well known sources of device lifetime reduction. In this theoretical work we…
To explore and react to their environment, living micro-swimmers have developed sophisticated strategies for locomotion - in particular, motility with multiple gaits. To understand the physical principles associated with such a behavioural…
One of the motivations for the development of wirelessly guided untethered magnetic devices (UMDs), such as microrobots and nanorobots, is the continuous demand to manipulate, sort, and assemble micro-objects with high level of accuracy and…
An external magnetic field can be used to remotely control small-scaled robots, making them promising candidates for diverse biomedical and engineering applications. We showed that our magnetically actuated millirobot is highly agile and…
Robotic arms mounted on spacecraft, known as space manipulator systems (SMSs), are critical for enabling on-orbit assembly, satellite servicing, and debris removal. However, controlling these systems in microgravity remains a significant…
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…
We use moving light patterns to control the motion of {\it Escherichia coli} bacteria whose motility is photo-activated. Varying the pattern speed controls the magnitude and direction of the bacterial flux, and therefore the accumulation of…
Wireless bioelectronic interfaces are increasingly used to control tissue-engineered biohybrid robotic systems. However, a unifying engineering framework linking device design to system-level control remains underdeveloped. Here, we propose…