Robotic Swimmers in Bio-fluids

A research group led by Prof. Zhang Li of the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering has developed a strategy that selects the optimized bio-inspired microrobotic swarms in different bio-fluids. The swarms reported may have great potential in medical applications, and this work is an important intermediate step from a fundamental understanding of microrobotic swarms to their clinic applications. The related results have been published in Nature Communications.

The new strategy proposed helps to select the optimized swarms in different bio-fluids based on their physical properties. In high-viscosity fluids (such as the vitreous humour inside the eyeball), medium-induced particle swarms are more stable; while in fluids with high ionic strength (such as the gastric acid inside the stomach), magnetic field-induced swarms have better performances. It is also notable that both types of microswarms can be generated in the blood plasma and the whole blood.