A Magnetic Helical Miniature Robot with Soft Magnetic-Controlled Gripper

Magnetic helical miniature robots (MHMRs) exhibit efficient motion performance in low Reynolds number environ- ments, having great promise for biomedical applications like tar- geted delivery. However, during targeted delivery, the backward propulsion of MHMRs in previous work leads to cargo being released, limiting their degrees of freedom and interference resis- tance. Furthermore, the basic magnetic field parameter, amplitude, has not been effectively utilized in previous MHMRs. In this letter, we propose a magnetic helical miniature robot with soft magnetic- controlled gripper (MHMR-G), using magnetic field amplitude to functionalize MHMRs for the first time. The velocity of MHMR-G is controlled by magnetic field frequency and the grasping of grip- per is controlled by magnetic field amplitude. It is proposed that the lag angle and rotation frequency will adversely affect the grasping of gripper under a rotating magnetic field, but results show that increasing magnetic field amplitude can effectively mitigate these adverse effects. Finally, a manipulation test of cargo transport is performed, demonstrating that the gripper of MHMR-G can effectively confine cargo during propulsion.