The mismatch between experimental and computational fluid dynamics analyses for magnetic surface microrollers

Magnetically actuated Janus surface microrollers is a promising microrobotic platform with numerous potential biomedical engineering applications. While the locomotion models based on a "rotating sphere on a nearby wall" can be adapted to surface microrollers, real-world dynamics may differ from the proposed theories/simulations. In this study, we examine the locomotion efficiency of surface microrollers with diameters of 5, 10, 25, and 50 µm and demonstrate that computational fluid dynamics simulations cannot accurately capture locomotion characteristics for different sizes of microrollers. Specifically, we observe a significant mismatch between lift forces predicted by simulations and opposite balancing forces, particularly for smaller microrollers. We propose the existence of an unaccounted force component in the direction of lift, which was not included in the computational fluid dynamics simulations. Overall, our findings provide a deeper understanding of the physical mechanisms underlying surface microroller locomotion and have important implications for future applications in biomedical engineering.