Must Indrek, Rinne Pille, Krull Friedrich, Kaasik Friedrich, Johanson Urmas, Aabloo Alvo
Intelligent Materials and Systems Lab, Institute of Technology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
Front Robot AI. 2019 Dec 20;6:140. doi: 10.3389/frobt.2019.00140. eCollection 2019.
Non-destructive handling of soft biological samples at the cellular level is becoming increasingly relevant in life sciences. In particular, spatially dense arrangements of soft manipulators with the capability of monitoring via optical and electron microscopes promises new and exciting experimental techniques. The currently available manipulation technologies offer high positioning accuracy, yet these devices significantly grow in complexity in achieving compliance. We explore soft and compliant actuator material with a mechanical response similar to gel-like samples for perspective miniaturized manipulators. First, we demonstrate three techniques for rendering the bulk sheet-like electroactive material, the ionic and capacitive laminate (ICL), into a practical manipulator. We then show that these manipulators are also highly compatible with electron optics. Finally, we explore the performance of an ICL manipulator in handling a single large cell. Intrinsic compliance, miniature size, simple current-driven actuation, and negligible interference with the imaging technologies suggest a considerable perspective for the ICL in spatially dense arrays of compliant manipulators for microscopy.
在细胞水平上对软生物样本进行无损处理在生命科学中变得越来越重要。特别是，具有通过光学和电子显微镜进行监测能力的软操纵器的空间密集排列有望带来新的、令人兴奋的实验技术。目前可用的操纵技术提供了高定位精度，但这些设备在实现柔顺性方面的复杂性显著增加。我们探索具有类似于凝胶状样本机械响应的软且柔顺的致动器材料，用于未来的微型操纵器。首先，我们展示了三种将块状片状电活性材料——离子和电容性层压板（ICL）制成实用操纵器的技术。然后我们表明这些操纵器也与电子光学高度兼容。最后，我们探索了ICL操纵器在处理单个大细胞方面的性能。其固有的柔顺性、微型尺寸、简单的电流驱动致动以及对成像技术的可忽略干扰表明，ICL在用于显微镜的柔顺操纵器的空间密集阵列中具有相当大的前景。
