Behavior of a magnetic manipulator of biological objects

Deals with manipulation of biological objects in an extremely confined space with a magnetic microactuator. Objects are pushed with a small magnetic particle (100×100×20 μm³) which is moved thanks to a permanent magnet. This device allows us to push micro-objects located in water between two glass panes. The distance between both glass panes is few hundred microns. The precision (1 μm) is limited by the pixel size of the camera. We define the dynamic behavior of the manipulator. We also describe the control strategy used to achieve a good precision despite the "stick slip effect"