Cell patterning with robotically controlled optical tweezers

This paper presents the use of robotically controlled optical tweezers to manipulate a group of cells into a region of interest to form the required pattern. A novel multilevel-based topology is designed to present different cell patterns in the region of interest. A potential function-based controller is developed to control the cells to form the required pattern. A pattern regulatory control force is developed which particularly addresses the special case when cells stop at undesired positions. The system stability is analyzed using Lyapunov approach. Experiment is performed with robotically controller optical tweezers to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.