Page 463 - Handbook of Biomechatronics

CHAPTER TWELVE

Bioinspired and Biomimetic

Micro-Robotics for Therapeutic

Applications

Ahmet Fatih Tabak
Max-Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart, Germany

Contents
1 Motivation 457
2 Background 460
2.1 Observations of Bacteria and Spermatozoa 462
2.2 Physics of Swimming in Micro-Realm 463
2.3 Experiments 475
3 Building a Micro-Swimmer Robot 482
3.1 Manufacturing Techniques 484
3.2 Biocompatibility and Functionalization 488
3.3 Actuation and Energy Supply 493
4 Modeling a Micro-Swimmer Robot as an End-Effector 499
4.1 Evolution of Equation of Motion 499
4.2 Equation of Motion 500
4.3 Stability and Controllability in the Wake of Efficiency 509
5 Epilog: Future Directions 513
References 517

1 MOTIVATION
The notion of tiny robots performing inside biological systems is one of
the most science-fiction ideas subtly explored in the pop culture with different
versions envisioned in movies such as Fantastic Voyage (20th Century Fox,
1966), Innerspace (Amblin Entertainment & Warner Bros., 1987), and The
Island (Parkes/MacDonald Productions & DreamWorks & Warner Bros.,
2005), and in TV series such as Star Trek Voyager (Paramount Network
Television & CBS Television Distribution, 1995–2001). If one looks for
the pattern of evolution of such systems portrayed in the silver screen, it will
be clear that the perception changed from manned generic vehicles shrunk in

Handbook of Biomechatronics © 2019 Elsevier Inc. 457
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-812539-7.00010-6 All rights reserved.