title: Undulatory Locomotion of Magnetic Multilink Nanoswimmers.
abstract: Micro- and nanorobots operating in low Reynolds number fluid environments require specialized swimming strategies for efficient locomotion. Prior research has focused on designs mimicking the rotary corkscrew motion of bacterial flagella or the planar beating motion of eukaryotic flagella. These biologically inspired designs are typically of uniform construction along their flagellar axis. This work demonstrates for the first time planar undulations of composite multilink nanowire-based chains (diameter 200 nm) induced by a planar-oscillating magnetic field. Those chains comprise an elastic eukaryote-like polypyrrole tail and rigid magnetic nickel links connected by flexible polymer bilayer hinges. The multilink design exhibits a high swimming efficiency. Furthermore, the manufacturing process enables tuning the geometrical and material properties to specific applications.
authors.affiliation: †Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, Zurich, CH-8092, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Bumjin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.affiliation: ‡Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 3200003, Israel.
authors.forename: Emiliya
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gutman
authors.affiliation: †Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, Zurich, CH-8092, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Nicolai
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Stucki
authors.affiliation: †Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, Zurich, CH-8092, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Benedikt F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Seitz
authors.affiliation: †Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, Zurich, CH-8092, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Pedro D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Wendel-García
authors.affiliation: †Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, Zurich, CH-8092, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Taylor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Newton
authors.affiliation: †Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, Zurich, CH-8092, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Juho
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pokki
authors.affiliation: †Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, Zurich, CH-8092, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Olgaç
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ergeneman
authors.affiliation: †Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, Zurich, CH-8092, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Salvador
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pané
authors.affiliation: ‡Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 3200003, Israel.
authors.forename: Yizhar
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Or
authors.affiliation: †Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, Zurich, CH-8092, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Bradley J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Nelson
keywords: 1-, 2-, and 3-Link nanoswimmers; nanowires; planar oscillating magnetic field; undulatory locomotion