Surface microswimmers, harnessing the interface to self-propel

Abstract

In the study of microscopic flows, self-propulsion has been particularly topical in recent years, with the rise of miniature artificial swimmers as a new tool for flow control, low Reynolds number mixing, micromanipulation or even drug delivery. It is possible to take advantage of interfacial physics to propel these micro-robots, as demonstrated by recent experiments using the proximity of an interface, or the interface itself, to generate propulsion at low Reynolds number. This paper discusses how a nearby interface can provide the symmetry breaking necessary for propulsion. An overview of recent experiments illustrates how forces at the interface can be used to generate locomotion. This paper then presents original results concerning two systems. The first is composed of floating ferromagnetic spheres that assemble through capillarity into swimming structures. The second system, also powered by a magnetic field, is a centimeter-sized piece that swims similarly to water striders.

arXiv comment10 pages, 7 figures

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Magnetically powered metachronal waves induce locomotion in self-assemblies
• Azimuthal instability of the radial thermocapillary flow around a hot bead trapped at the water-air interface
• Magnetic microswimmers exhibit Bose-Einstein-like condensation
• Capillary assemblies in a rotating magnetic field
• A general perturbative approach for bead-based microswimmers reveals rich self-propulsion phenomena
• Locomotion of magnetoelastic membranes in viscous fluids
• Lattice Boltzmann simulations of two linear microswimmers using the immersed boundary method
• Giant Vesicles with Encapsulated Magnetic Nanowires as Versatile Carriers, Transported via Rotating and Non-Homogeneous Magnetic Fields
• SurferBot: A wave-propelled aquatic vibrobot
• Exact solutions for viscous Marangoni spreading