Microrobots are being developed for a variety of medical applications including drug delivery, surgical treatment, and imaging of inaccessible areas inside the body. During any such process, the microrobots need to traverse in a fluid that is present in a geometrically complex and crowded environment. Simulating this situation, we consider the dynamics of microrobots (i) inside microchannels and (ii) during hydrodynamic collision with other obstacles on its path. Simulations are performed using a lattice Boltzmann method, and the solutions are validated with analytical approximations. We discuss that hydrodynamics warrants classification of the microrobots as (i) driven and (ii) active and show that the hydrodynamic response of two types of microrobots in complex and crowded environments can be quite different. Active microrobots classified as “pullers” are likely to work best in geometrically crowded environments. We further show that collision with suspended obstacles, whether driven or active, will have only an interim effect. Therefore, design considerations for microrobots should account for the hydrodynamic resistance of static confinements rather than hydrodynamic collisions with dynamic obstacles.


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    Title :

    Hydrodynamics of Microrobots: Effect of Confinement and Collisions



    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2024-07-24


    Size :

    27 pages




    Type of media :

    Article/Chapter (Book)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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