Tag Archives: Max Saccone

Molecular Science, Robotics, Technology

Chipping Out Microbots

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We’ve been talking about nanobots and synthetic cell-sized robots for decades now (as well as the new “Carbon Age”), and the technology has been demonstrated in many forms.  But it is still awfully difficult to actually build such tiny devices, let alone mass produce them.

This fall a group and MIT report a new method for created “syncells”, tiny cell-sized (around tens of microns) “robots” [2].  Basically, a relatively simple set up induces a thin (“2D”) layer of graphene to fracture in controlled ways, creating a neat little chunk to design.

Using previously developed techniques, these chunks can be equipped with sensors and circuits, creating micron scaled “robots”, suitable for physiological and other monitoring tasks.

The simplicity and yield of the method promises to make it possible to create the swarms of microbots we’ve been dreaming of.  (The previous sentence was mistyped at first, reading “crating the swarms of microbots”–which would be an good name for a band!)

The method works by controlling the natural fracturing of the graphene material.  The researchers coined the term “autoperforation,” for this technique.  But I would point out that they are chipping out stone tools—at a ridiculously tiny scale, but still fabrication by controlled fracturing.

Native Americans probably used a stone hammer, similar to this, to knock flakes from the metarhyolite. (Credit: NPS Photo)

As the researchers note, this method may open a wealth of uses in microscale fabrication—just as the understanding of macroscale properties of materials led to many kinds of hand made and ultimately machine made objects.

  1. David L. Chandler, How to mass produce cell-sized robots, in MIT News. 2018. http://news.mit.edu/2018/how-mass-produce-cell-sized-robots-1023
  2. Pingwei Liu, Albert Tianxiang Liu, Daichi Kozawa, Juyao Dong, Jing Fan Yang, Volodymyr B. Koman, Max Saccone, Song Wang, Youngwoo Son, Min Hao Wong, and Michael S. Strano, Autoperforation of 2D materials for generating two-terminal memristive Janus particles. Nature Materials, 17 (11):1005-1012, 2018/11/01 2018. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0197-z

 

PS:  Wouldn’t “crating the swarms of microbots” be a great name for a band?

Robot Wednesday