Robotic Optical-micromanipulation Platform for Teleoperated Single-Cell Manipulation

Abstract

Single cell manipulation is considered a key technique for biological application. However, the lack of intuitive and effective systems make this techniques less widespread. We propose here a new tele-robotic solution for dexterous cell manipulation through optical tweezers. The slave robot consist in a combination of robot-assisted stages and a highspeed multi-trap technique and allows the manipulation of more than 15 optical traps in a workspace of (200×200×200) µm 3 for translations and (70×50×8) µm 3 for rotations, both with nanometric resolution. The master device with 6+1 Dof is employed to control the 3D position of optical traps in differents arrangements. Traps can be grouped and controlled in a variety of ways for specific purposes. Precision and efficiency studies are carried out with trajectory control tasks. Finally, the 6D teleoperated-control of an optical robot for cell-transport is presented. Results exemplify the kind of biological applications that can be accomplished with the presented system in an effective and intuitive way, even if the user does not come from an engineering background.

A Review of Single-Cell Microrobots: Classification, Driving Methods and Applications

“…For microrobots of one millimeter or smaller size, it is difficult to load them with enough capacitor batteries [ 88 ] or connect an external power supply cord to provide drive power [ 89 ] like with traditional robots, and even if there is the possibility of this, it will largely limit the tiny robots’ movement space and speed. But, based on the small size, light weight, speed and high dynamics of the single-cell organism itself, it can stimulate itself for braking purposes by converting energy obtained remotely [ 90 ]. Many unicellular bodies and particulate materials can respond to physical and chemical stimuli that can be used to drive microrobots to achieve different forms of motion [ 91 ], such as grasping [ 92 , 93 , 94 ], rolling [ 95 , 96 , 97 ], crawling [ 98 ] and swimming [ 99 , 100 ].…”

Tele–Robotic Platform for Dexterous Optical Single-Cell Manipulation

“…Based on all these observations, we propose a teleoperated optical-micromanipulation platform for direct and indirect single-cell dexterous manipulation. The content of this paper has been partially mentioned in a previous conference paper [25]. This article presents a more detailed methodology and additional studies on the precision and efficiency of the proposed platform.…”