Programmable control of soft magnetic helical microrobot from microfluidics

Soft magnetic helical microrobots (SMHMs) have received increasing attention due to their body compliance, high controllability, and rotation-based motion. Their accurate and programmable control is expected for complex environments facing practical applications. We fabricate the SMHM easily through microfluidics, and build a Helmholtz coil system with a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) to programmatically control them. By controlling the currents of three-dimensional Helmholtz coil, the rotation speed and direction of the uniform rotating magnetic field generated by the coil can be customized. Besides, SMHMs can rotate in the direction perpendicular to the rotation axis of the magnetic field, and their speeds increase with the magnetic rotation frequency. Thus, the accurate manipulation of the SMHMs' speed and direction will be achieved just by regulating the coil current. Further, a GUI combined with path planning algorithm is developed to control SMHMs by programming the currents, planning the optimal path for SMHMs, and monitoring their real-time motions. Even non-specialists could easily manipulate SMHMS to move along the desired path and realize the controllable obstacle avoidance movement, which is programmable, user-friendly, and potential for complex scenarios. These characteristics may enable more accurate, effective, and safe work of SMHMs in various fields.