Flagellar swimming for medical micro robots: Theory, experiments and application

Abstract

Flagellar swimming is one of the swimming methods used by micro-organisms to advance in aquatic environment. The undulating motion of the flagella was successfully imitated to create propulsion for a medical swimming micro robot. The influence of a head section on the performance of such a robot is shown analytically. Swimming experiments demonstrate forward and backward swimming of a novel magnetically driven swimming tail. We intend to use the flagellar swimming tail in a three tail configuration for neurosurgical intervention in the ventricular system.