Soft Colloidal Robots: Magnetically Guided Liquid Crystal Torons for Targeted Micro-Cargo Delivery

TL;DR

This paper introduces magnetically guided liquid crystal torons as soft microrobots capable of targeted cargo delivery, demonstrating programmable control, stability, and reconfigurability through experiments and simulations.

Contribution

It presents a novel method for controlling liquid crystal topological solitons as soft robots with programmable trajectories and cargo handling capabilities.

Findings

Magnetic fields enable full directional control of torons.

Microfluidic confinement influences toron transport regimes.

Torons are reconfigurable, stable, and suitable for soft robotic applications.

Abstract

Quasiparticles in liquid crystals, such as torons and skyrmions, represent a new class of topologically protected solitonic excitations, offering a promising route toward soft microrobotics. Here we demonstrate that torons can be propelled by modulated electric fields and magnetically steered with full directional control, thus achieving programmable trajectories without net liquid flow. Within microfluidic architectures, we guide ensembles of torons through confined channels and realize targeted pick-up, transport, and release of colloidal cargo. By combining experiments and numerical simulations, we uncover how magnetic alignment reshapes toron structure, speed, and stability, while confinement within microchannels gives rise to novel transport regimes. Unlike conventional colloidal inclusions, torons are intrinsically uniform, soft, and reconfigurable, establishing them as both an ideal model system for studying emergent phenomena in active topological matter and a versatile platform for next-generation soft robots, adaptive delivery systems, and smart active matter.