MicroRoboScope: A Portable and Integrated Mechatronic Platform for Magnetic and Acoustic Microrobotic Experimentation

Microscale robots have a variety of potential applications in medicine, environmental monitoring, and tissue engineering, due to their small size and capabilities of sensing and manipulation at the small scale [1]. Recent research has demonstrated their potential in applications ranging from ocular drug delivery and in vitro fertilization to root canal prevention and tumor treatment [2, 3]. The most common actuation methods for microscale robots are acoustic and electromagnetic actuation [4]. Acoustic microrobots, for instance, can be manipulated using sound waves to achieve precise movements, while electromagnetic microrobots rely on magnetic fields for their actuation and control. Traditional open-loop control systems for acoustic and magnetic microrobots often fail to provide the necessary accuracy and reliability required for the above applications [5].