Amazing stuff! Not all robots are humanoid! 😊
"... Barely visible to the naked eye, each robot measures about 200 by 300 by 50 micrometers, smaller than a grain of salt. Operating at the scale of many biological microorganisms, the robots could advance medicine by monitoring the health of individual cells and manufacturing by helping construct microscale devices.
Powered by light, the robots carry microscopic computers and can be programmed to move in complex patterns, sense local temperatures and adjust their paths accordingly. ..."
From the abstract 1 (emphasis added):
"Although miniaturization has been a goal in robotics for nearly 40 years, roboticists have struggled to access submillimeter dimensions without making sacrifices to onboard information processing because of the unique physics of the microscale. Consequently, microrobots often lack the key features that distinguish their macroscopic cousins from other machines, namely, on-robot systems for decision-making, sensing, feedback, and programmable computation.
Here, we take up the challenge of building a robot comparable in size to a single-celled paramecium that can sense, think, and act using onboard systems for computation, sensing, memory, locomotion, and communication.
Built massively in parallel with fully lithographic processing, these microrobots can execute digitally defined algorithms and autonomously change behavior in response to their surroundings.
Combined, these results pave the way for general-purpose microrobots that can be programmed many times in a simple setup and can work together to carry out tasks without supervision in uncertain environments."
From the significance and abstract 2 (emphasis added):
"Significance
Electrokinetic propulsion offers speed, simplicity, and reliable operation at the microscale, but, despite decades of research, current micromotors cannot incorporate on-board systems for sensing and information processing, limiting their usefulness.
Here, we point a way forward by demonstrating electrokinetic microrobots whose propulsion is directly controlled by onboard electronics, namely photovoltaic cells.
Here, we point a way forward by demonstrating electrokinetic microrobots whose propulsion is directly controlled by onboard electronics, namely photovoltaic cells.
Although incorporation of complex circuits is reserved for future work, these initial demonstrations simplify design and control of electrokinetic microrobots, decoupling the chemical environment from the propulsive electric field, and operate in new environments like those with high conductivities or that lack specialized fuels. Long term, these actuators could enable fast, robust sub-millimeter robots that use onboard electronics to sense, think, and act all on their own.
Abstract
Semiconductor microelectronics are emerging as a powerful tool for building smart, autonomous sub-millimeter robots.
Yet a number of existing microrobot platforms, despite significant advantages in speed, robustness, power consumption, or ease of fabrication, have no clear path toward electronics integration, limiting their potential for intelligence.
Here, we show how to upgrade a class of self-propelled particles into electronically integrated microrobots, reaping the best of both platforms in a single design.
Inspired by electrokinetic micromotors, these robots generate electric fields in a surrounding fluid, and by extension propulsive electrokinetic flows.
The underlying physics is captured by a model in which robot speed is proportional to applied current, making design and control straightforward.
As proof, we build basic robots at the 100-micron scale that use rudimentary, on-board photovoltaic circuits and a closed-loop optical control scheme to navigate waypoints and move in coordinated swarms at speeds of up to one body length per second.
Broadly, the unification of micromotor propulsion with on-robot electronics invites future work to realize robust, fast, easy to manufacture, electronically programmable microrobots that remain operationally viable for months to years."
Microscopic robots that sense, think, act, and compute (open access, 1)
Fig. 1 Fig. 1. Overview of the microrobot circuits.
Fig. 1 Electrokinetic propulsion for microrobots.
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