Acoustically Powered Magnetic Microrobots for Cellular Manipulation

A grand challenge in robotics, and the scientific community as a whole, is developing tools to determine the fate of singular micro- and nanoscale objects with a high level of precision and speed, particularly cells for biomedical applications. Despite the recent surge of activity in this area, there still does not exist a system that contains most of the practical components for carrying out many complex tasks, such as fast and precise motion, tunable speed, appropriate length scale, bio-orthogonality, and high throughput in the form controlling many robots at one time. Here, we demonstrate these characteristics in the form of an acoustically powered microrobot steered by an applied magnetic field. The acoustic propulsion mechanism provides a variety of highly desirable features, such as high speed, precision, short-range attractive forces utilized as an end effector, and orthogonality in any liquid medium. The potential power of this approach is highlighted by cargo pickup and delivery to individual cells and also cellular manipulation. In this paper, we show that not only are acoustic microrobots bio-compatible, but can also be used for cellular manipulation and targeted delivery.