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Published on: February 8, 2017
Soft Colloidal Robots: Magnetically Guided Liquid Crystal Torons for Targeted Micro-Cargo Delivery.
Joel Torres-Andrés1,2, Rodrigo C V Coelho3,4, Patrick Oswald5
1Departament de Ciència de Materials i Química Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Small (Weinheim an Der Bergstrasse, Germany)
|May 14, 2026
Summary
Torons, a type of quasiparticle in liquid crystals, can be precisely controlled using electric and magnetic fields for soft microrobotics. These topologically protected excitations enable programmable movement and cargo manipulation in microfluidic systems.
Area of Science:
- Soft Matter Physics
- Topological Matter
- Microrobotics
Background:
- Quasiparticles like torons and skyrmions are topologically protected solitonic excitations.
- These excitations offer potential applications in soft microrobotics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate programmable control and manipulation of torons.
- To explore toron behavior in microfluidic environments for robotic applications.
Main Methods:
- Propulsion of torons using modulated electric fields.
- Magnetic steering for directional control of torons.
- Experiments and numerical simulations to analyze toron dynamics and structure.
Main Results:
- Achieved programmable trajectories for torons without bulk liquid flow.
- Demonstrated targeted pick-up, transport, and release of colloidal cargo using torons.
- Uncovered the influence of magnetic alignment and microchannel confinement on toron speed, structure, and stability.
Conclusions:
- Torons are versatile, uniform, and reconfigurable building blocks for active matter.
- Torons serve as an ideal model for studying emergent phenomena in topological matter.
- Established torons as a promising platform for next-generation soft robots and adaptive delivery systems.
