Abstract
Manipulation of biology objects like cells, DNA, and protein is an important subject for biological and medical researches. There are many techniques now available to manipulate biology object. One can use pipette, needle, optical tweezers, atomic force microscope, micro-grippers etc. However, they have some limitations and disadvantages such as dimension mismatch, high cost and invasion of biology object by direct contact or excessive power.For this research, we learn from Nature and mimic how lobster sniffs via flicking its tiny/micro hairs to capture a detailed map of the swirling odor molecules in the water. One of the key advantages of this innovative research is that we develop micro-actuators, which mimic the function of lobster’s tiny hair on its antennules, to control the fluid around the targeted biology objects to manipulate biology objects in micro-scale. This can avoid the drawbacks mentioned above. Such biomimetics via engineering implementation have never been done and even proposed.We have done most of the theoretical analyses including mathematical models for radius of curvature of bimetallic layers and electrostatic force between curled finger and flat electrode, and numerical simulations of fluid passing actuator fingers to verify the feasibility of this idea. Also, we have fabricated the devices successfully and have addressed several fabrication problems and solutions to them. Finally, we have demonstrated that the actuator fingers can manipulate micro-object in the liquid environment via electrostatic-force actuation. This research covers most of fundamental studies and gives some suggestions and comments for the future design.