Automated estimation of contact angle on hydrophobic fibers using a microrobotic platform

Abstract

This paper presents an automated computer vision algorithm for estimating contact angles that a droplet of probe liquid forms on hydrophobic fibers. A specially designed microrobotic platform is utilized in manipulating the microscopic fibers, shooting droplets in the scale of tens of nanoliters on the fibers and capturing images of the experiments. The images are then processed with the automated computer vision algorithm. The algorithm is proven to be reliable and repeatable with totally 29 experiments on five different bio-based fiber samples.