Microbiorobotics

Chapter 7

Bacteria-Inspired Microrobots

Kathrin E. Peyer*, Arthur W. Mahoney^†, Li Zhang*, Jake J. Abbott^‡ and Bradley J. Nelson*

*Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland

^†School of Computing, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA

^‡Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Fluid mechanics at low Reynolds numbers

7.2.1 The Reynolds number

7.2.2 Modeling Stokes flow

7.3 Bacterial swimming

7.3.1 Bacteria swim by rotating helical filaments

7.3.2 Modeling helical swimming

7.3.3 Fabrication of artificial bacterial microrobots

7.4 Actuation of artificial bacterial microrobots

7.4.1 Magnetic forces and torques

7.4.2 Magnetic ...