Pyro-EHD micro-robot for touchless manipulation of liquid and solid targets

Manipulation of micro-sized objects in lab-on-a-chip and microfluidic environments is essential for different experiments and procedures ranging from chemical to biological applications and for experimental biotechnologies. Several techniques for object micro-manipulation are being researched including mechanical manipulation by AFM tips, soft robots, dielectrophoresis, magnetic traps and optical tweezers. Another technique developed recently, the Optoelectronic Tweezers (OET), represents a combination of optical tweezers and dielectrophoresis trapping and results in a new way for manipulating microparticles, nanowires and even live cells. Computer-controlled nanorobotic systems represent a rapid growing sector in medicine and biology. Many techniques have been developed through the years to dispense liquids and manipulate microfluidic flows. Recently, an innovative and simple way for manipulating liquids from microlitre down to attolitre volumes through a non-contact mode was developed. This new technique is named pyro-electro-hydro-dynamics (PEHD) and uses the pyroelectric forces, which are activated over a lithium niobate (LN) substrate. The system does not require electrodes, nozzles or circuits and could have many applications in nanomedicine and various transport and mixing processes. This technology could be seen as a novel and electrode-less technique for gripping and transporting even micrometre-sized objects driven by a pyroelectric effect. This pyro-microrobot, activetaed by the pyroelectric effect could manage simultaneously or separately liquids as well as solid targets in an integrated platform. This method employs pyroelectric forces for the control of the micro-targets motion, developing a touchless technology and, at the same time, enables the liquid dispensing process on specific targets. Various full cycles of microrobot activities could be pursued and implemented in different experiments. The results obtained show the reliability of the proposed idea and its proof of principles. The method, if engineered properly, can be exploited in many fields such as biotechnology, chemistry and tissue engineering for several applications. Among these, we mention, as an example, the usage in personalized medicine in which hosted pills can be manipulated in touch-less mode and precise drops of liquid or nanoparticle medications can be delivered onto their surfaces. For example polymeric particles, useful as targets for encapsulating or for being covered by drug vaccines, can be manipulated and controlled with the aim of releasing them to specific sites. Here we present a novel ElectroHydroDynamic robot for novel handling technique able to control and manipulate micro-targets by a touch-less approach. This approach allows one to manipulate liquids and nano-particles simultaneously for specific delivery applications (i.e. decoration and coating). This pyro-robot offers a flexible tool and provides a new and powerful way to operate various tasks as demonstrated by the experiments described. It appear very similar to the soft robots, an engineered mobile machine but, overcomes the complexity of the fabrication of this soft machine still incapable of operating in warehousing, manufacturing, and food processing environments where the uncertainty and variety in the weight size and shape of products being handled has prevent automated solutions from working in the past.