bacterium, [7] alga [8] ). Since most of the above-described organisms are aquatic, their anatomical features precipitate biomimetic approaches to design new microrobots that imitate efficient swimming motion of such organisms.Within such aquatic creatures, a unique swimming mechanism is demonstrated by organisms (e.g., octopus, squid, cuttlefish) that belong to the Cephalopoda family. The cephalopods exhibit a jet-propulsion phenomenon whereby they sequentially inflate and deflate bodies to pump fluid which imparts the necessary thrust to move forward. [9][10][11][12][13][14] This sequential inflation and deflation in cephalopods can be attributed to their elastic bodies which function like a mass-spring system. [14][15][16] These naturally occurring mass-spring resonators have been a motivation to design artificial robotic systems that closely imitate the cephalopod-inspired motion. [14] Previously, different fabrication methods (e.g., mold casting, [9] 3-D printing, [10] shape memory alloys, [11] dielectric elastomers, [13] elastic membranes [14] ) have produced microrobotic designs that mimic members of the Cephalopoda family. Although the aforementioned fabrication methods closely imitate the anatomy of cephalopods up to centimeter scale, their implementation at micro-and nano-scale can be challenging owing to fabrication constraints. Such precise replication of anatomical features at micro-to nano-scale requires multi-step fabrication processes. [5,[17][18][19][20] Specifically, the synthesis of micro-scale movable components that enable Aquatic organisms within the Cephalopoda family (e.g., octopuses, squids, cuttlefish) exist that draw the surrounding fluid inside their bodies and expel it in a single jet thrust to swim forward. Like cephalopods, several acoustically powered microsystems share a similar process of fluid expulsion which makes them useful as microfluidic pumps in lab-on-a-chip devices. Herein, an array of acoustically resonant bubbles are employed to mimic this pumping phenomenon inside an untethered microrobot called CeFlowBot. CeFlowBot contains an array of vibrating bubbles that pump fluid through its inner body thereby boosting its propulsion. CeFlowBots are later functionalized with magnetic layers and steered under combined influence of magnetic and acoustic fields. Moreover, acoustic power modulation of CeFlowBots is used to grasp nearby objects and release it in the surrounding workspace. The ability of CeFlowBots to navigate remote environments under magnetoacoustic fields and perform targeted manipulation makes such microrobots useful for clinical applications such as targeted drug delivery. Lastly, an ultrasound imaging system is employed to visualize the motion of CeFlowBots which provides means to deploy such microrobots in hard-to-reach environments inaccessible to optical cameras.The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202105829.
Fluid flow shear stresses are strong regulators for directing the organization of vascular networks. Knowledge of structural and flow dynamics information within complex vasculature is essential for tuning the vascular organization within engineered tissues, by manipulating flows. However, reported investigations of vascular organization and their associated flow dynamics within complex vasculature over time are limited, due to limitations in the available physiological pre-clinical models, and the optical inaccessibility and aseptic nature of these models. Here, we developed laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) and side-stream dark field microscopy (SDF) systems to map the vascular organization, spatio-temporal blood flow fluctuations as well as erythrocytes movements within individual blood vessels of developing chick embryo, cultured within an artificial eggshell system. By combining imaging data and computational simulations, we estimated fluid flow shear stresses within multiscale vasculature of varying complexity. Furthermore, we demonstrated the LSCI compatibility with bioengineered perfusable muscle tissue constructs, fabricated via molding techniques. The presented application of LSCI and SDF on perfusable tissues enables us to study the flow perfusion effects in a non-invasive fashion. The gained knowledge can help to use fluid perfusion in order to tune and control multiscale vascular organization within engineered tissues.
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