A microrobotic method for fabricating multilayered poly(lactic acid) (PLA) biological scaffolds using micropipettes for tissue engineering applications is presented. Biological scaffolds are fabricated over several different substrates by drawing and solidification of a viscous liquid polymer solution pumped continuously through a glass micropipette. The proposed method produces highly aligned, multilayered, crisscrossed fiber scaffolds with user specified pore sizes and diameters in the range from 1 to 10 micrometer. Attachment, proliferation and differentiation of C2C12 mouse pluripotential cells seeded on individual, parallel, and intersecting fibers is successfully demonstrated. The proposed robotic methodology consistently provides parameterized biological scaffolds to aid studies in tissue engineering and to develop novel MEMS, filtration and controlled drug delivery devices

Besides imaging and characterization, proximal probes are proposed to be use as a three-dimensional (3D) nanoscale manipulation and manufacturing tool In this work. We propose 3D nanoscale pulling of liquid polymer micro/nanofibers by precise positioning of atomic force microscope (AFM) nanoprobes and control of polymer solidification. An AFM probe is used to pull or extrude thermoset or thermoplastic polymers precisely to fabricate 3D polymer micro/nano-fiber structures. A liquid polymer fiber bridge between the probe tip and a substrate is maintained when pulling the probe from the surface with controlled speed and position. We present results of our pulling experiments in vertical, horizontal and arbitrary 3D pulling directions for PMMA polymer fibers. Implications and future directions are discussed. This micro/nano-fiber pulling technology would have wide applications in nano-circuit interconnects, prototyping novel nano-electronic devices, 3D polymer fiber based nano-actuators, photonic devices, and novel smart sensors and materials.