Magnetically Selective Versatile Transport of Microrobotic Carriers

Field-driven transport systems offer great promise for use as biofunctionalized carriers in microrobotics, biomedicine, and cell delivery applications. Despite the construction of artificial microtubules using several micromagnets, which provide a promising transport pathway for the synchronous delivery of microrobotic carriers to the targeted location inside microvascular networks, the selective transport of different microrobotic carriers remains an unexplored challenge. This study demonstrated the selective manipulation and transport of microrobotics along a patterned micromagnet using applied magnetic fields. Owing to varied field strengths, the magnetic beads used as the microrobotic carriers with different sizes revealed varied locomotion, including all of them moving along the same direction, selective rotation, bidirectional locomotion, and all of them moving in a reversed direction. Furthermore, cells immobilized with magnetic beads and nanoparticles also revealed varied locomotion. It is expected that such steering strategies of microrobotic carriers can be used in microvascular channels for the targeted delivery of drugs or cells in an organized manner.