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Cardiac Muscle-cell Based Actuator and Self-stabilizing Biorobot - PART 1

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Programmable Motion of Optically Gated Electrically Powered Engineered Microswimmer Robots.

Matan Zehavi¹, Ido Rachbuch², Sinwook Park²

¹Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Technion City, 32000, Israel.

Small (Weinheim an Der Bergstrasse, Germany)

|May 3, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers developed new electrically powered microswimmers with programmable motion. These active particles use light to control propulsion and steering separately, enabling complex trajectory control under uniform illumination.

Keywords:

electrokinetics engineered active particle microrobots optically gated steering photoconductive active particle

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Bioinspired Soft Robot with Incorporated Microelectrodes

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Robotics
Physics

Background:

Active particles offer potential for micro-robotics and targeted delivery.
Controlling microswimmer motion typically requires complex optical setups or external fields.

Purpose of the Study:

To report a new class of active particles with dynamically programmable motion powered by electricity.
To decouple propulsion and steering mechanisms for enhanced trajectory control.

Main Methods:

Utilized optically activated, patterned, photoresponsive semiconductor coatings (zinc oxide) on microstructures.
Employed induced-charge electro-phoresis (ICEP) for linear motion and optically modulated electrokinetic propulsion (OMEP) for steering.
Achieved optical steering under uniform ambient illumination by exploiting semiconductor photoconductive properties.

Main Results:

Demonstrated programmable trajectories for microswimmer robots in open and closed-loop control modes.
Successfully separated propulsion and steering mechanisms for independent control.
Reduced optical system complexity by enabling steering under uniform illumination.

Conclusions:

The findings enable efficient optically gated control of photoresponsive active particle trajectories.
This approach facilitates selective manipulation of microparticles with diverse semiconducting coatings.