Opto-fluidically multiplexed assembly and micro-robotics.
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Abstract
Techniques for high-definition micromanipulations, such as optical tweezers, hold substantial interest across a wide range of disciplines. However, their applicability remains constrained by material properties and laser exposure. And while microfluidic manipulations have been suggested as an alternative, their inherent capabilities are limited and further hindered by practical challenges of implementation and control. Here we show that the iterative application of laser-induced, localized flow fields can be used for the relative positioning of multiple micro-particles, irrespectively of their material properties. Compared to the standing theoretical proposal, our method keeps particles mobile, and we show that their precision manipulation is non-linearly accelerated via the multiplexing of temperature stimuli below the heat diffusion limit. The resulting flow fields are topologically rich and mathematically predictable. They represent unprecedented microfluidic control capabilities that are illustrated by the actuation of humanoid micro-robots with up to 30 degrees of freedom, whose motions are sufficiently well-defined to reliably communicate personal characteristics such as gender, happiness and nervousness. Our results constitute high-definition micro-fluidic manipulations with transformative potential for assembly, micro-manufacturing, the life sciences, robotics and opto-hydraulically actuated micro-factories.
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Acknowledgements: We acknowledge funding by the Max Planck Society, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the University of Cambridge. MK further acknowledges support by the European Research Council, in particular the ERC Starting Grant GHOSTs (Grant No. 853619) and the Hector Foundation. MK and EE acknowledge support by the Volkswagen Foundation (Life! Grant No. 92772). Additionally, the Kreysing lab is co-funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy – 2082/1 – 390761711 and Research Grant 515462906. We also acknowledge support by the Karlsruhe School of Optics & Photonics (KSOP). WL gratefully acknowledges funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC studentship). We thank Nicola Maghelli from the Advanced Imaging Facility and Sergei Klykov from the Scientific Computing Facility at MPI-CBG for software support in LabVIEW and Python. We kindly acknowledge the help of Gayathri Nadar and HongKee Moon from the Scientific Computing Facility at MPI-CBG with reconstruction of the target coordinates for the humanoid robots (Fig. 4e). We also thank Franziska Friedrich from the Media Technologies and Outreach Facility at MPI-CBG for her support. MK and EE thank Michael Schlierf (B CUBE, TU Dresden), Benjamin Seelbinder, Iliya D. Stoev, Susan Wagner and Christoph Zechner (all MPI-CBG Dresden) for stimulating discussions. We thank Iain Patten for valuable discussions on the structure and layout of the manuscript. We thank Núria Taberner from VIZCIE for creating the conceptual 3D-visualization of our technique in Fig. 1a.
Funder: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Max Planck Society); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100004189
Funder: Helmholtz Association; doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100009318
Funder: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100009133
Funder: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology | Helmholtz International Research School for Teratronics, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (Helmholtz International Research School for Teratronics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100009484
Funder: RCUK | Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000269
Funder: University of Cambridge; doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000735
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2047-7538
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Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) (Excellence Strategy 2082/1 – 390761711, Research Grant 515462906)