A contribution about ferrofluid based flow manipulation and locomotion systems

With the background of developing apedal bionic inspired locomotion systems for future application fields like autonomous (swarm) robots, medical engineering and inspection systems, this article presents a selection of locomotion systems with bifluidic flow control using ferrofluid. By controlling the change of shape, position and pressure of the ferrofluid in a secondary low viscous fluid by magnetic fields locomotion of objects or the ferrofluid itself can be realised. The locomotion of an object is caused in the first example by a ferrofluid generated flow of the secondary fluid and in the second and third case by the direct alteration of the ferrofluid position.