Control strategies for magnetically driven artificial microswimmers

Artificial microswimmers have received significant experimental and theoretical research attention due to their promising potential biomedical applications, such as targeted drug delivery, minimally invasive surgery, and micro-particle manipulation. While various means of propulsion have been considered, swimming bodies driven by externally applied magnetic fields seem particularly promising, as they present the capability of controlling the swimmers remotely. While previous works have controlled such microswimmers using simplified models for control or by aligning the rotation direction of the magnetic field with the desired steering direction, for complex swimming tasks, more advanced control strategies are needed. Here, we consider a micro-robot composed of three rigidly connected spheres, driven by a torque induced through an externally applied magnetic field. Through Stokesian dynamics simulations, we examine model-based and data-driven control strategies for various swimming scenarios, such as path tracking for a single swimmer, manipulation of a passive particle, and control of multiple swimmers using a single, global magnetic field.