Biomimetic Ciliary Propulsion: Soft Robotic Actuation and Morphological Control

This research studies a biomimetic ciliary propulsion system, based on an array of independent pneumatically-actuated soft artificial cilia. The design of the system takes into account the characteristic nonreciprocal motions of biological cilia such as the spatial asymmetry of the single cilium motion and the metachronal wave effect of the whole cilia array. These motions are needed in order to generate a net fluid flow at low Reynolds number, which is the case of microfluidics applications and viscous fluidic propulsion. Net flows, measured with Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique, is characterized in function of the nonreciprocal motions. Further, new fabrication processes for soft pneumatic actuators are investigated, including subtractive manufacturing for actuators with complex deformations and lithographic microfabrication for sub-mm actuators. Lastly, a new approach named "morphological control" is developed to drive multiple artificial cilia using a single input, simplifying the control system.