  Flagellated microorganisms can swim at low Reynolds numbers and adapt to
changes in their environment. Specifically, the flagella can switch their
shapes or modes through gene expression. In the past decade, efforts have been
made to fabricate and investigate rigid types of microrobots without any
adaptation to the environments. More recently, obtaining adaptive microrobots
mimicking real microorganisms is getting more attention. However, even though
some adaptive microrobots achieved by hydrogels have emerged, the swimming
behaviors of the microrobots before and after the environment-induced
deformations are not predicted in a systematic standardized way. In this work,
experiments, finite element analysis, and dynamic modeling are presented
together to realize a complete understanding of these adaptive microrobots. The
above three parts are cross-verified proving the success of using such methods,
facilitating the bio-applications with shape-programmable and even swimming
performance-programmable microrobots. Moreover, an application of targeted
object delivery using the proposed microrobot has been successfully
demonstrated. Finally, cytotoxicity tests are performed to prove the potential
for using the proposed microrobot for biomedical applications.
