Non-Contact Micromanipulation Of A Single E. Coli Minicell

Abstract

Today, a variety of methods are available for micro-scale transportation without inflicting damage on biological samples. There are several numerical and experimental studies in the literature that make use of microrobots to manipulate particles in non-contact performances. One of the applications used to mitigate the aforementioned risk is non-contact micro manipulation by hydrodynamic effects, and with the micro-objects floating around the core of a free vortex this method can be implemented effectively. However, a robotic model predicting the dynamics of such microsystems is rare in the literature and yet to be applied for manipulation of a bacterium. In this paper, a single magnetic particle that is assumed to be held in a fixed place while rotated by an external magnetic field, and an E. Coli minicell swimming in the free vortex induced by the described rotation. The mathematical model and the numerical simulations presented here via linear set of equations for rigid body-motion under the magnetic and hydrodynamic forces are built in cylindrical coordinates. Results demonstrate the numerical stability of the robotic model along with predicted-motion pointing to a steady periodic orbit around the vortex center for a total of 600 periods of simulated magnetic field rotation. Results to the numerical experiments are focused on the rigid-body rotation of E. Coli minicell, the propulsive force of the rotating helical tail of the bacterium, and acceleration, speed, and displacement of the bacterium with respect to the center of the vortex.