Franco Piñan Basualdo

Franco Nicolas Pinan Basualdo received his Mechanical Engineering degree from the Balseiro Institute, Argentina, in 2017. He then pursued a Ph.D., receiving a double Ph.D. diploma, in Engineering Sciences and Technology (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium), and in Automation and Robotics (University Bourgogne Franche-Comté, France), in 2022. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Surgical Robotics Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering Technology, University of Twente. His current research revolves around the application of untethered micro-robotics for biomedical applications, with special attention to multi-agent or collective systems. In particular, he develops strategies to simplify the actuation of multiple magnetic microrobots. In addition to micro-robotics, his research interests include swarm robotics, active matter, microfluidics, and interfacial phenomena.

About the talk: Small Robots, Big Potential: Enhancing Untethered Microrobotics with Numerical Methods 

Microrobots possess the potential to revolutionize the field of biomedicine by facilitating internal and localized diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The Surgical Robotics Laboratory (SRL) focusses on developing novel techniques to reach challenging locations within the body. SRL designs, fabricates, and control a range macro and micro-robots for a variety of clinical applications. Due to their small dimensions, micro-robots depend on external signals, such as acoustic or magnetic fields, for actuation and control. External actuation gives rise to non-linear dynamics, posing challenges in terms of control. Nonetheless, recent advances in numerical methods have enabled computers to effectively invert the dynamic equations in real-time, which has allowed researchers to exploit the full potential of micro-robots. In our case, numerical model inversion has been applied to control multiple magnetic micro-robots for various operations.