Paramagnetic microparticles sliding on a surface: Characterization and closed-loop motion control
Kareem Youakim, Mohamed Ehab, Omar Hatem, Sarthak Misra, Islam S. M. Khalil
Abstract
In targeted therapy, clusters of drug carriers (nanoparticles and microparticles) could be in contact with a surface such as the lumen of blood vessels and the interior of the gastrointestinal tract. We study the motion characteristics of clusters of microparticles when they slide on a surface under the influence of weak oscillating magnetic fields (less than 11 mT). The oscillating magnetic fields exert a magnetic torque on the microparticles and allow them to oscillate, and hence overcome the static friction and slide on a surface. We characterize the frequency response of clusters of microparticles by applying oscillating magnetic fields with a frequency range of 0 Hz to 55 Hz, in the presence of a constant magnetic field gradient (0.9 T/m). Clusters of 3 to 4 and 5 to 9 microparticles achieve maximum sliding speeds of 1100 µm/s and 1150 µm/s, at oscillating magnetic fields of 30 Hz. In addition, we experimentally demonstrate closed-loop motion control of the clusters with maximum position error of 20 µm. Furthermore, we show that the magnetic field gradient required to drive a cluster of microparticles (with 3 to 4 microparticles) decreases by 75% in the presence of oscillating magnetic fields from 5 Hz to 50 Hz.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{icra2015_paramagneticmicr,
title = {Paramagnetic microparticles sliding on a surface: Characterization and closed-loop motion control},
author = {Kareem Youakim and Mohamed Ehab and Omar Hatem and Sarthak Misra and Islam S. M. Khalil},
booktitle = {ICRA 2015},
year = {2015}
}