Preliminary design of an autonomous microrobot propelled by magnetotactic bacteria

The preliminary design of a fully autonomous bacterial microrobot for future operation in aqueous medium is briefly presented. The expected overall dimension of this microrobot is 650 mum times 550 mum. Prior to minimize the energy requirement collected through embedded photovoltaic cells, the motility of MC-1 magnetotactic bacteria is controlled and exploited for the displacement of the robot. This paper describes the general architecture of such microrobot with emphasis on the embedded controlled bacterial actuation in which is integrated a 3D coil solenoid based on standard CMOS technology for magnetic field generation prior to orient the swimming direction of the bacteria to propel the microrobot.