DGIST announced on Tuesday August 2, 2016 that Professor Choi Hong-soo's research team from the Department of Robotics Engineering developed ciliary microrobots with high propulsion efficiency in highly-viscous fluid environments in the human body such as blood by mimicking the movement of paramecia's cilia.
Professor Choi's research team succeeded in fabricating the world's first ciliary microrobots utilizing ultra-fine three-dimensional processing technology and asymmetric magnetic drive technology by applying microorganism's ciliary movement, which thus far had only been theorized but never put into practice.
Microfluidic environments in which microorganisms move include highly viscous environments like the human body's internal fluids; thus, in a macro environment, it is difficult to create propulsion with swimming-based mechanisms such as inertia-based symmetrical rowing like that used by large animals such as humans. As such, microorganisms moving in highly-viscous environments utilize various other propulsion techniques such as spiral drive motion, progressive wave motion, ciliary asymmetric reciprocating motion, and the like.
Microrobots that use propulsion mechanisms such as spiral drive motion and progressive wave motion were first realized and implemented at the Zurich Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland; University of Twente, Netherlands; and Harvard University, USA. However, the development of microrobots that move utilizing ciliary motion has thus far been absent due to the difficulty of producing a microstructure with a large number of cilia as well as with asymmetrical drive.
Professor Choi's research team has produced a ciliary microrobot with nickel and titanium coating on top of photo-curable polymer material, using three-dimensional laser process technology and precise metal coating techniques.
The full journal article is available.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday September 02 2016, @08:26AM
Wow, I'd forgotten all about Ciliary Stroke motion. Rumour has it that when MTV finally did air the uncut video to "Spiral Drive Fluids", there were simultaneous national statistical spikes in heart-related hospital admissions and wet-wipe sales. They were a great act, it was such a shame that "Sloppy" Sonny Sellers never fully recovered from those third-degree friction burns.