Collaborative Research: Self-Regulating Artificial Cilia Arrays with Stereotypic Motor Patterns for Omnidirectional Fluid and Particle Manipulation

Microscale control of liquids and suspended particles is essential for next-generation medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and for development of miniature soft machines capable of locomotion in complex fluid environments. Yet existing devices steer fluid flow along only a few fixed directions and lose precision when conditions change. This project seeks to create artificial motile cilia arrays (soft filaments slimmer than a human hair) that can adjust their rhythm in real time and move fluid or cargo in any direction. By melding recent progress in soft-composite manufacturing, embedded sensing, and model-based control, the work seeks to emulate the versatility of living cilia while offering greater durability and scalability. The anticipated advance will not only deepen fundamental understanding of microscale transport, but also strengthen national health through faster diagnostics and gentler cell handling. The project also looks to propel economic prosperity by enabling agile soft microrobots for targeted drug delivery and high-precision microassembly of next-generation devices. A coordinated education plan looks to integrate project discoveries into undergraduate and graduate curricula, offer mentored research opportunities for students, and deliver hands-on demonstrations to learners from kindergarten through grade twelve. The research seeks to establish a new class of self-regulating artificial cilia arrays designed to enable precise, energy-efficient manipulation of fluids and suspended particles in three dimensions. Each soft filament in the array will operate under localized actuation and embedded feedback, allowing it to autonomously adjust its motion in response to environmental conditions. Rather than relying on pre-programmed sequences, the system looks to exploit hydrodynamic interactions and internal sensing to generate coordinated, adaptive wave-like patterns that emerge from simple local rules. This self-organization enables robust control over the flow direction and transport behavior, even as fluid properties or external constraints change. A prototype array will be built to demonstrate these capabilities in representative viscous media. In parallel, theoretical and computational studies seek to inform the design of control strategies and guide the scaling of the system for broader application. The resulting framework intends to offer a versatile foundation for next-generation microfluidic devices and soft robotic systems capable of autonomous operation in complex, dynamic environments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.