鞭毛型マイクロゲルロボットの駆動

抄録

We propose a micro-gel robot having a flagella-like structure. We design and fabricate robots that have a same Reynolds number as microorganisms, especially Chlamydomonas. Flagella-like actuator is made of a hydrogel, which has a thermo-responsive characteristic. The hydrogel actuator is mixed with light absorber materials so that the actuator can be driven by light irradiation. We selected carbon nanotube (CNT) as a light absorber by comparing absorbance efficiencies. To determine design values, we evaluated pattern-ability of CNT-mixed hydrogels. The minimum width of flagella-like structure was 6 μm . By making Reynolds number of the hydrogel actuator same as that of microorganisms, it is thought that the robot can swim with same principle as microorganisms. Therefore, we designed robots considering Reynolds number and succeeded in driving the robot with light irradiation.