Design and Control of a Novel Corkscrew Clawbot for Cell Manipulation

Magnetic microrobots are untethered microscale objects that, due to their small size, have the potential for biomedical applications such as targeted drug delivery and cellular patterning. In this paper, we present a new magnetic microrobot design resembling a corkscrew microrobot with claws. This novel magnetic corkscrew clawbot is capable of performing single cell manipulation. Closed loop control was also implemented to demonstrate the precise actuation capa-bilities of the clawbot in a fluidic environment on a glass slide. Cell viability was assessed via trypan blue viability assay on Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells. In addition, CHO cells were chosen as the representative cell line for the cell manipulation and natterning studies.