2013 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Characterization and Control of Biological Microrobots
Authors : Islam S. M. Khalil, Marc P. Pichel, Lars Zondervan, Leon Abelmann, Sarthak Misra
Published in: Experimental Robotics
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
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This work addresses the characterization and control of Magnetotactic Bacterium (MTB) which can be considered as a biological microrobot. Magnetic dipole moment of the MTB and response to a field-with-alternating-direction are characterized. First, the magnetic dipole moment is characterized using four techniques, i.e., Transmission Electron Microscopy images,
flip-time, rotating-field
and
u-turn
techniques. This characterization results in an average magnetic dipole moment of 3.32x10
16
A.m2 and 3.72x10
16
A.m
2
for non-motile and motile MTB, respectively. Second, the frequency response analysis of MTB shows that its velocity decreases by 38% for a field-with-alternating-direction of 30 rad/s. Based on the characterized magnetic dipole moment, the magnetic force produced by our magnetic system is five orders-of-magnitude less than the propulsion force generated by the flagellum of the MTB. Therefore,
point-to-point
positioning of MTB cannot be achieved by exerting a magnetic force. A closed-loop control strategy is devised based on calculating the position tracking error, and capitalizes on the frequency response analysis of the MTB.
Point-to-point
closed-loop control of MTB is achieved for a reference set-point of 60
μ
m with average velocity of 20
μ
m/s. The closed-loop control system positions the MTB within a region-of-convergence of 10
μ
m diameter.