Sensing and Actuation for Micro Bio Robots

Scaling down the size of robots enables new ways of exploring and manipulating microscale environments. Specifically in the field of biology, microrobots can be a tool for single cell analysis; such as for manipulating cells [1], measuring cell interactions [2] and cell surgery [3]. To create microrobots, we need to miniturize actuation and sensing capability to the cell scale. Bacteria have been integrated into microrobots for actuation as an on-board power source [4, 5]. To integrate sensing onto the same platform, the sensor must be able to sense an environmental cue, generate a physical change detectable using standard microscopy equipment and be small enough to fit onto a microscale robotic platform. Advances in synthetic biology have enabled different behaviors and responses to be programmed into biological cells, the result is a biosensor packaged into a living cell. In separate experiments, we have shown that bacteria can be used for sensing as well as for propelling microstructures to make micro bio robots (MBRs). This poster will detail on the sensing side, experimental results of an MBR capable of sensing cell damaging environments and on the actuation side, a stochastic dynamical model of the motion of bacteria propelled MBRs using a simplified chemotaxis molecular model. This work is toward creating microrobots that integrate inorganic with organic materials for sensing and actuation.