Collective Beating of Artificial Microcilia

Collective beating of artificial microcilia.

We combine technical, experimental, and theoretical efforts to investigate the collective dynamics of artificial microcilia in a viscous fluid. We take advantage of soft lithography and colloidal self-assembly to devise microcarpets made of hundreds of slender magnetic rods. This novel experimental setup is used to investigate the dynamics of extended cilia arrays driven by a precessing magneti...

University of Groningen Fluid flow due to collective non-reciprocal motion of symmetrically-beating artificial cilia

Fluid flow due to collective non-reciprocal motion of symmetrically-beating artificial cilia.

Using a magneto-mechanical solid-fluid numerical model for permanently magnetic artificial cilia, we show that the metachronal motion of symmetrically beating cilia establishes a net pressure gradient in the direction of the metachronal wave, which creates a unidirectional flow. The flow generated is characterised as a function of the cilia spacing, the length of the metachronal wave, and a dim...

Artificial Intelligence and Collective Intelligence

The vision of artificial intelligence (AI) is often manifested through an autonomous software module (agent) in a complex and uncertain environment. The agent is capable of thinking ahead and acting for long periods of time in accordance with its goals/objectives. It is also capable of learning and refining its understanding of the world. The agent may accomplish this based on its own experienc...

Analysis of fluid flow around a beating artificial cilium

Biological cilia are found on surfaces of some microorganisms and on surfaces of many eukaryotic cells where they interact with the surrounding fluid. The periodic beating of the cilia is asymmetric, resulting in directed swimming of unicellular organisms or in generation of a fluid flow above a ciliated surface in multicellular ones. Following the biological example, externally driven artifici...