Just Keep Swimming: Designing and Fabricating Autonomous Artificial Microswimmers
Open Access
- Author:
- Baker, Remmi
- Graduate Program:
- Materials Science and Engineering
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- February 14, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Igor S Aronson, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Igor S Aronson, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
James Hansell Adair, Outside Member
Venkatraman Gopalan, Outside Member
Ayusman Sen, Committee Member
Lauren Dell Zarzar, Committee Member
John C Mauro, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- microswimmer
chemistry
physics
synthetic biology
artificial swimmer
artificial life
nanofabrication
3d printing
lithography
colloids
drug delivery
medicine
microfluidics
biology
biomimic
robotics
microrobotics - Abstract:
- Microscopic machines have become popular over the last fifteen years with the advent of new nanofabrication techniques, self-powering, and propelling mechanisms, and precise cargo pick-up and delivery abilities. Micromachines will undoubtedly alter everyday life, from advanced microfluidic diagnostics to highly-efficient and targetted medicinal therapies, and to also microplastic pollution janitors. However, before arriving at these applications, there is a necessity to understand the fundamental principles for designing highly-efficient swimming microrobots and also how to program specific autonomous behaviors into the micromachines. In this thesis, I will demonstrate a novel technique to rapidly 3D print micromachines and program multi-responsive behaviors into their 3-dimensional geometries. In addition, I will also discuss fluid shearing-induced biomimicry responses of micromachines in confined spaces. Throughout my thesis, I will show the cargo-transport applications we have achieved, and whereby also the fluid transport of these micromachines can be improved for more applications in more complex environments, such as the human vascular system for drug transportation.