Magnetic Driving Flowerlike Soft Platform: Biomimetic Fabrication and External Regulation

Nature-inspired actuators that can be driven by various stimuli are an emerging application in mobile microrobotics and microfluidics. In this study, a soft and multiple-environment-adaptive robotic platform with ferromagnetic particles impregnated in silicon-based polymer is adopted to fabricate microrobots for minimally invasive locomotion and control interaction with their environment. As an intelligent structure of platform, the change of its bending, deformation, and flapping displacement is rapid, reversible, and continuously controllable with sweeping and multicycle magnetic actuation. The bending angle of the soft platform (0.2 mm in thickness and 8.5 mm in length) can be deflected up to almost 90° within 2.7 s. Experiments demonstrated that the flexible platform of human skin-like material in various shapes, that is, flowerlike shapes, can transport a cargo to targeted area in air and a variety of liquids. It indicates excellent magnetic-actuation ability and good controllability. The results may be helpful in developing a magnetic-driven carrying platform, which can be operated like a human finger to manipulate biological objects such as single cells, microbeads, or embryos. Especially, it is likely to be used in harsh chemical and physical circumstances.