Near and far-wall effects on the three-dimensional motion of bacteria-driven microbeads

Bio-hybrid microrobots have been heavily studied due to their potential applications as minimally invasive medical microdevices. Though most researchers have focused on two-dimensional and near-wall motion, this letter uses a defocused optical tracking method to quantify the three-dimensional motion of 5 mu m diameter polystyrene beads driven by attached Serratia marcescens bacteria. Away from walls the beads trace out helical trajectories, demonstrating kinematics produced by near-constant forces and torques. Near-wall motion is observed to be more stochastic. The motion of beads driven by single bacteria is analyzed in detail, providing an understanding of the forces and torques on the beads. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.