Magnetic polymer composite artificial bacterial flagella.

Artificial bacterial flagella (ABFs) are magnetically actuated swimming microrobots inspired by Escherichia coli bacteria, which use a helical tail for propulsion. The ABFs presented are fabricated from a magnetic polymer composite (MPC) containing iron-oxide nanoparticles embedded in an SU-8 polymer that is shaped into a helix by direct laser writing. The paper discusses the swim performance of MPC ABFs fabricated with varying helicity angles.