Bacterial flagella-based propulsion and on/off motion control of microscale objects (original) (raw)
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Research Article| January 11 2007
NanoRobotics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Carnegie Mellon University
, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
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NanoRobotics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Carnegie Mellon University
, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
Search for other works by this author on:
Electronic mail: sitti@cmu.edu
Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 023902 (2007)
Miniaturization of the power source and on-board actuation is the main bottleneck for the development of microscale mobile robots. As a possible solution, this letter proposes the use of flagellar motors inside the intact cell of Serratia marcescens bacteria for controlled propulsion of swimming robotic bodies. The feasibility of the proposed idea is demonstrated by propelling 10μm polystyrene beads at an average speed of 15±6μm∕s by several bacteria randomly attached on their surface. On/off motion control of the bead is achieved by introducing copper ions to stop the bacteria flagellar motors and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid to resume their motion.
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© 2007 American Institute of Physics.
2007
American Institute of Physics
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