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    PublicationOpen Access
    3D microprinting of iron platinum nanoparticle-based magnetic mobile microrobots
    (Wiley, 2021) Giltinan, Joshua; Sridhar, Varun; Bozüyük, Uğur; Sheehan, Devin; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Sitti, Metin; Faculty Member; Department of Mechanical Engineering; School of Medicine; College of Engineering; 297104
    Wireless magnetic microrobots are envisioned to revolutionize minimally invasive medicine. While many promising medical magnetic microrobots are proposed, the ones using hard magnetic materials are not mostly biocompatible, and the ones using biocompatible soft magnetic nanoparticles are magnetically very weak and, therefore, difficult to actuate. Thus, biocompatible hard magnetic micro/nanomaterials are essential toward easy-to-actuate and clinically viable 3D medical microrobots. To fill such crucial gap, this study proposes ferromagnetic and biocompatible iron platinum (FePt) nanoparticle-based 3D microprinting of microrobots using the two-photon polymerization technique. A modified one-pot synthesis method is presented for producing FePt nanoparticles in large volumes and 3D printing of helical microswimmers made from biocompatible trimethylolpropane ethoxylate triacrylate (PETA) polymer with embedded FePt nanoparticles. The 30 mu m long helical magnetic microswimmers are able to swim at speeds of over five body lengths per second at 200Hz, making them the fastest helical swimmer in the tens of micrometer length scale at the corresponding low-magnitude actuation fields of 5-10mT. It is also experimentally in vitro verified that the synthesized FePt nanoparticles are biocompatible. Thus, such 3D-printed microrobots are biocompatible and easy to actuate toward creating clinically viable future medical microrobots.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    3D printing of elastomeric bioinspired complex adhesive microstructures
    (Wiley, 2021) Dayan, Cem Balda; Chun, Sungwoo; Krishna Subbaiah, Nagaraj; Drotlef, Dirk Michael; Akolpoğlu, Mükrime Birgül; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Sitti, Metin; Faculty Member; Department of Mechanical Engineering; College of Engineering; School of Medicine; 297104
    Bioinspired elastomeric structural adhesives can provide reversible and controllable adhesion on dry/wet and synthetic/biological surfaces for a broad range of commercial applications. Shape complexity and performance of the existing structural adhesives are limited by the used specific fabrication technique, such as molding. To overcome these limitations by proposing complex 3D microstructured adhesive designs, a 3D elastomeric microstructure fabrication approach is implemented using two-photon-polymerization-based 3D printing. A custom aliphatic urethane-acrylate-based elastomer is used as the 3D printing material. Two designs are demonstrated with two combined biological inspirations to show the advanced capabilities enabled by the proposed fabrication approach and custom elastomer. The first design focuses on springtail- and gecko-inspired hybrid microfiber adhesive, which has the multifunctionalities of side-surface liquid super-repellency, top-surface liquid super-repellency, and strong reversible adhesion features in a single fiber array. The second design primarily centers on octopus- and gecko-inspired hybrid adhesive, which exhibits the benefits of both octopus- and gecko-inspired microstructured adhesives for strong reversible adhesion on both wet and dry surfaces, such as skin. This fabrication approach could be used to produce many other 3D complex elastomeric structural adhesives for future real-world applications.
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    Publication
    3D-printed micrometer-scale wireless magnetic cilia with metachronal programmability
    (Amer Assoc Advancement Science, 2023) Zhang, Shuaizhong; Hu, Xinghao; Li, Meng; Bozuyuk, Ugur; Zhang, Rongjing; Suadiye, Eylul; Han, Jie; Wang, Fan; Onck, Patrick; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Sitti, Metin; Department of Mechanical Engineering; College of Engineering; School of Medicine
    Biological cilia play essential roles in self-propulsion, food capture, and cell transportation by performing coor-dinated metachronal motions. Experimental studies to emulate the biological cilia metachronal coordination are challenging at the micrometer length scale because of current limitations in fabrication methods and ma-terials. We report on the creation of wirelessly actuated magnetic artificial cilia with biocompatibility and meta-chronal programmability at the micrometer length scale. Each cilium is fabricated by direct laser printing a silk fibroin hydrogel beam affixed to a hard magnetic FePt Janus microparticle. The 3D-printed cilia show stable actuation performance, high temperature resistance, and high mechanical endurance. Programmable meta-chronal coordination can be achieved by programming the orientation of the identically magnetized FePt Janus microparticles, which enables the generation of versatile microfluidic patterns. Our platform offers an unprecedented solution to create bioinspired microcilia for programmable microfluidic systems, biomedical en-gineering, and biocompatible implants.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    3D-printed microrobots from design to translation
    (Nature Portfolio, 2022) Department of Mechanical Engineering; N/A; Dabbagh, Sajjad Rahmani; Sarabi, Misagh Rezapour; Birtek, Mehmet Tuğrul; Sitti, Metin; Taşoğlu, Savaş; Faculty Member; Faculty Member; Department of Mechanical Engineering; KU Arçelik Research Center for Creative Industries (KUAR) / KU Arçelik Yaratıcı Endüstriler Uygulama ve Araştırma Merkezi (KUAR); Koç Üniversitesi İş Bankası Yapay Zeka Uygulama ve Araştırma Merkezi (KUIS AI)/ Koç University İş Bank Artificial Intelligence Center (KUIS AI); Koç University Research Center for Translational Medicine (KUTTAM) / Koç Üniversitesi Translasyonel Tıp Araştırma Merkezi (KUTTAM); Graduate School of Health Sciences; Graduate School of Sciences and Engineering; School of Medicine; College of Engineering; N/A; N/A; N/A; N/A; 297104; 291971
    Microrobots have attracted the attention of scientists owing to their unique features to accomplish tasks in hard-to-reach sites in the human body. Microrobots can be precisely actuated and maneuvered individually or in a swarm for cargo delivery, sampling, surgery, and imaging applications. In addition, microrobots have found applications in the environmental sector (e.g., water treatment). Besides, recent advancements of three-dimensional (3D) printers have enabled the high-resolution fabrication of microrobots with a faster design-production turnaround time for users with limited micromanufacturing skills. Here, the latest end applications of 3D printed microrobots are reviewed (ranging from environmental to biomedical applications) along with a brief discussion over the feasible actuation methods (e.g., on- and off-board), and practical 3D printing technologies for microrobot fabrication. In addition, as a future perspective, we discussed the potential advantages of integration of microrobots with smart materials, and conceivable benefits of implementation of artificial intelligence (AI), as well as physical intelligence (PI). Moreover, in order to facilitate bench-to-bedside translation of microrobots, current challenges impeding clinical translation of microrobots are elaborated, including entry obstacles (e.g., immune system attacks) and cumbersome standard test procedures to ensure biocompatibility.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    3D-printed multi-stimuli-responsive mobile micromachines
    (American Chemical Society (ACS), 2020) Lee, Yun-Woo; Ceylan, Hakan; Yasa, İmmihan Ceren; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Kılıç, Uğur; Sitti, Metin; Faculty Member; Department of Mechanical Engineering; School of Medicine; College of Engineering
    Magnetically actuated and controlled mobile micromachines have the potential to be a key enabler for various wireless lab-on-a-chip manipulations and minimally invasive targeted therapies. However, their embodied, or physical, task execution capabilities that rely on magnetic programming and control alone can curtail their projected performance and functional diversity. Integration of stimuli-responsive materials with mobile magnetic micromachines can enhance their design toolbox, enabling independently controlled new functional capabilities to be defined. To this end, here, we show three-dimensional (3D) printed size-controllable hydrogel magnetic microscrews and microrollers that respond to changes in magnetic fields, temperature, pH, and divalent cations. We show two-way size-controllable microscrews that can reversibly swell and shrink with temperature, pH, and divalent cations for multiple cycles. We present the spatial adaptation of these microrollers for penetration through narrow channels and their potential for controlled occlusion of small capillaries (30 μm diameter). We further demonstrate one-way size-controllable microscrews that can swell with temperature up to 65% of their initial length. These hydrogel microscrews, once swollen, however, can only be degraded enzymatically for removal. Our results can inspire future applications of 3D- and 4D-printed multifunctional mobile microrobots for precisely targeted obstructive interventions (e.g., embolization) and lab- and organ-on-a-chip manipulations.
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    Publication
    A bioinspired stretchable membrane-based compliance sensor
    (Natl Acad Sciences, 2020) Matsuhisa, Naoji; You, Insang; Ruth, Sarah Rachel Arussy; Niu, Simiao; Foudeh, Amir; Tok, Jeffrey B. -H.; Chen, Xiaodong; Bao, Zhenan; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Beker, Levent; Faculty Member; Department of Mechanical Engineering; College of Engineering; 308798
    Compliance sensation is a unique feature of the human skin that electronic devices could not mimic via compact and thin form-factor devices. Due to the complex nature of the sensing mechanism, up to now, only high-precision or bulky handheld devices have been used to measure compliance of materials. This also prevents the development of electronic skin that is fully capable of mimicking human skin. Here, we developed a thin sensor that consists of a strain sensor coupled to a pressure sensor and is capable of identifying compliance of touched materials. The sensor can be easily integrated into robotic systems due to its small form factor. Results showed that the sensor is capable of classifying compliance of materials with high sensitivity allowing materials with various compliance to be identified. We integrated the sensor to a robotic finger to demonstrate the capability of the sensor for robotics. Further, the arrayed sensor configuration allows a compliance mapping which can enable humanlike sensations to robotic systems when grasping objects composed of multiple materials of varying compliance. These highly tunable sensors enable robotic systems to handle more advanced and complicated tasks such as classifying touched materials.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    A computational multicriteria optimization approach to controller design for pysical human-robot interaction
    (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2020) Tokatlı, Ozan; Patoğlu, Volkan; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Aydın, Yusuf; Başdoğan, Çağatay; Faculty Member; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Graduate School of Sciences and Engineering; College of Engineering; N/A; 125489
    Physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) integrates the benefits of human operator and a collaborative robot in tasks involving physical interaction, with the aim of increasing the task performance. However, the design of interaction controllers that achieve safe and transparent operations is challenging, mainly due to the contradicting nature of these objectives. Knowing that attaining perfect transparency is practically unachievable, controllers that allow better compromise between these objectives are desirable. In this article, we propose a multicriteria optimization framework, which jointly optimizes the stability robustness and transparency of a closed-loop pHRI system for a given interaction controller. In particular, we propose a Pareto optimization framework that allows the designer to make informed decisions by thoroughly studying the tradeoff between stability robustness and transparency. The proposed framework involves a search over the discretized controller parameter space to compute the Pareto front curve and a selection of controller parameters that yield maximum attainable transparency and stability robustness by studying this tradeoff curve. The proposed framework not only leads to the design of an optimal controller, but also enables a fair comparison among different interaction controllers. In order to demonstrate the practical use of the proposed approach, integer and fractional order admittance controllers are studied as a case study and compared both analytically and experimentally. The experimental results validate the proposed design framework and show that the achievable transparency under fractional order admittance controller is higher than that of integer order one, when both controllers are designed to ensure the same level of stability robustness.
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    Publication
    A computational study of axial dispersion in segmented gas-liquid flow
    (American Institute of Physics (AIP) Publishing, 2007) Gunther, Axel; Stone, Howard A.; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Muradoğlu, Metin; Faculty Member; Department of Mechanical Engineering; College of Engineering; 46561
    Axial dispersion of a tracer in a two-dimensional gas-liquid flow is studied computationally using a finite-volume/front-tracking method. The effects of Peclet number, capillary number, and segment size are examined. At low Peclet numbers, the axial dispersion is mainly controlled by the convection through the liquid films between the bubbles and channel walls. In this regime, the computational results are found to be in a very good agreement with the existing model due to Pedersen and Horvath [Ind. Eng. Chem. Fundam. 20, 181 (1981)]. At high Peclet numbers, the axial dispersion is mainly controlled by the molecular diffusion, with some convective enhancement. In this regime, a new model is proposed and found to agree well with the computational results. These Peclet number regimes are shown to persist for different slug lengths. The axial dispersion is found to depend weakly on the capillary number in the diffusion-controlled regime. Finally, computational simulations are performed for the cases of six bubbles to mimic bubble trains, and results are compared with the theoretical models.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    A computational study of droplet-based bioprinting: effects of viscoelasticity
    (American Institute of Physics (AIP) Publishing, 2019) Taşoğlu, Savaş; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Nooranidoost, Mohammad; Izbassarov, Daulet; Muradoğlu, Metin; PhD Student; PhD Student; Faculty Member; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Graduate School of Sciences and Engineering; N/A; N/A; 46561
    Despite significant progress, cell viability continues to be a central issue in droplet-based bioprinting applications. Common bioinks exhibit viscoelastic behavior owing to the presence of long-chain molecules in their mixture. We computationally study effects of viscoelasticity of bioinks on cell viability during deposition of cell-loaded droplets on a substrate using a compound droplet model. The inner droplet, which represents the cell, and the encapsulating droplet are modeled as viscoelastic liquids with different material properties, while the ambient fluid is Newtonian. The model proposed by Takamatsu and Rubinsky ["Viability of deformed cells," Cryobiology 39(3), 243-251 (1999)] is used to relate cell deformation to cell viability. We demonstrate that adding viscoelasticity to the encapsulating droplet fluid can significantly enhance the cell viability, suggesting that viscoelastic properties of bioinks can be tailored to achieve high cell viability in droplet-based bioprinting systems. The effects of the cell viscoelasticity are also examined, and it is shown that the Newtonian cell models may significantly overpredict the cell viability.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    A computational study of two-phase viscoelastic systems in a capillary tube with a sudden contraction/expansion
    (American Institute of Physics (AIP) Publishing, 2016) Department of Mechanical Engineering; Izbassarov, Daulet; Muradoğlu, Metin; PhD Student; Faculty Member; Department of Mechanical Engineering; College of Engineering; N/A; 46561
    Two-phase viscoelastic systems are computationally studied in a pressure-driven flow with a sudden contraction and expansion using a finite-difference/front-tracking method. The effects of viscoelasticity in drop and bulk fluids are investigated including high Weissenberg and Reynolds number cases up to Wi = 100 and Re = 100. The Finitely Extensible Non-linear Elastic-Chilcott and Rallison (FENE-CR) model is used to account for the fluid viscoelasticity. Extensive computations are performed to examine drop dynamics for a wide range of parameters. It is found that viscoelasticity interacts with drop interface in a non-monotonic and complicated way, and the two-phase viscoelastic systems exhibit very rich dynamics especially in the expansion region. At high Re, the drop undergoes large deformation in the contraction region followed by strong shape oscillations in the downstream of the expansion. For a highly viscous drop, a re-entrant cavity develops in the contraction region at the trailing edge which, in certain cases, grows and eventually causes encapsulation of ambient fluid. The re-entrant cavity formation is initiated at the entrance of the contraction and is highly influenced by the viscoelasticity. Compared to the corresponding straight channel case, the effects of viscoelasticity are reversed in the constricted channel: Viscoelasticity in drop/continuous phase hinders/enhances formation of the re-entrant cavity and entrainment of ambient fluid into main drop. Encapsulation of ambient fluid into main droplet may be another route to produce a compound droplet in microfluidic applications. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.