Contactless Precision Steering of Particles in a Fluid inside a Cube with Rotating Walls
arXiv:2506.15958 · doi:10.1017/jfm.2025.10174
Abstract
Contactless manipulation of small objects is essential for biomedical and chemical applications, such as cell analysis, assisted fertilisation, and precision chemistry. Established methods, including optical, acoustic, and magnetic tweezers, are now complemented by flow control techniques that use flow-induced motion to enable precise and versatile manipulation. However, trapping multiple particles in fluid remains a challenge. This study introduces a novel control algorithm capable of steering multiple particles in flow. The system uses rotating disks to generate flow fields that transport particles to precise locations. Disk rotations are governed by a feedback control policy based on the Optimising a Discrete Loss (ODIL) framework, which combines fluid dynamics equations with path objectives into a single loss function. Our experiments, conducted in both simulations and with the physical device, demonstrate the capability of the approach to transport two beads simultaneously to predefined locations, advancing robust contactless particle manipulation for biomedical applications.
References in corpus (7)
- Optimizing a DIscrete Loss (ODIL) to solve forward and inverse problems for partial differential equations using machine learning tools
- Algorithm for a microfluidic assembly line
- Independent Control and Path Planning of Microswimmers with a Uniform Magnetic Field
- Computing foaming flows across scales: from breaking waves to microfluidics
- Flow reconstruction by multiresolution optimization of a discrete loss with automatic differentiation
- The control of particles in the Stokes limit
- Optimal Navigation in Microfluidics via the Optimization of a Discrete Loss