Microgear Robots
Characterization and Control of shapeable microparticles in an Optoelectronic Tweezer Setup
G.J. Gorsse (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
Carlas Smith – Mentor (TU Delft - BN/Nynke Dekker Lab)
J. Kalkman – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - ImPhys/Computational Imaging)
Silvania Pereira – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - ImPhys/Pereira group)
Gerard Verbiest – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Dynamics of Micro and Nano Systems)
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Abstract
The growing demand for scalable biomedical solutions calls for precise, programmable, and cost-effective manipulation techniques at the microscale. While mechanical and magnetic methods have been explored, they often face limitations in flexibility, biocompatibility, or scalability. Optical tweezers offer high precision, but suffer from thermal side effects and complex, expensive setups. Optoelectronic tweezers (OET), by contrast, utilize patterned light to induce dielectrophoretic forces, enabling flexible, energy-efficient, and scalable control of microscopic particles using relatively simple hardware.
To support advanced biomedical research at Delft University of Technology, a fully functional OET platform was developed from the ground up. It integrates a custom transparent photoconductive microfluidic chip with a DMD-based optical system for real-time, reconfigurable actuation. Custom-fabricated PDMS microgear robots were successfully manipulated under varying electrical and optical conditions. Using precise motion tracking and calibration, the generated dielectrophoretic forces were quantified, with peak values approaching 500 pN, and benchmarked against theoretical models and literature estimates.
This research demonstrates that complex-shaped microbots can be effectively actuated within a custom-built OET system, paving the way for future applications in automated diagnostics, single-cell manipulation, and intelligent lab-on-a-chip platforms. By combining hardware innovation with theoretical insight, this work lays a robust foundation for microscale robotics in next-generation biomedical technologies.