Pardon the alliteration, but we're excited about the proposition here. For years -- millenniums, even -- scientists have been trying to figure out how to manipulate minuscule devices with
magnets, and at long last, we've got a breakthrough in the field. Metin Sitti, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, is credited with creating a new control technique that could allow microscopic machines to "one day deliver drugs directly to a sickly cell or a tumor." Essentially, the diminutive bots glide across a glass surface covered with a grid of metal electrodes, and you're just a click away (it's the Read link, just so you know) from seeing a live demonstration on how they can be used to "anchor one or more microbots while allowing others to continue to move freely around the surface." Good times.
posted May 7th 2009 6:52PM
with mini frickin lasers?
best way to produce heat and inductance.
energy wasting scheme has started!
this is pretty sexy!!!
all they need now is to make those robots re-produce themselves!!!!
This was demonstrated at Robocup 2007.... kinda old news don't you think?
*millennia
Oh wow this got onto Engadget. So I'm one of the people who work on this project (so I can take any questions). Robocup 2007 was good in that it first started this foray into micro-robotics, with a targeted goal of micro-robots playing soccer. At that time there really wasn't a way to have multiple micro-robots operate, which is one of the newer features of this micro-robotic system shown in the video at the link. Of course we aren't the only ones working on multiple magnetic micro-robots, but this is our approach for this magnetic system, and it has its advantages and disadvantages compared to other systems (i.e. the Dartmouth micro-robot and the ETH-Zurich micro-robot, also from Robocup 2007). There's also much work in understanding the way these micro-robot systems operate, and figuring out what realizable applications there are with such a system.
that's pretty awesome! what are the micro robots made of? they kinda look like they squiggle along some how. do you have any links with more info on them?
Great work man. I always enjoy seeing work like this seeing as how I basically live at our synchrotron facility. So how much control can you get when you scale down? 200 microns is still really huge.
These micro-robots are laser cut pieces of regular every day neodymium-iron-boron "rare earth" magnets, sort of boring I suppose, but simple is always a good thing when it comes to micro-devices. We are working on more intricate designs that can be batch fabricated, but that's yet to be published and is an on-going work.
You can see more links at our lab website: http://nanolab.me.cmu.edu/projects/MagneticMicroRobot/
And there's also the robocup nanogram website: http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/calmed/robocup_photos.html
200 microns, I suppose is 'huge' in micro-device terms, but is a convenient size - not too small that you can't easily handle with just tweezers. We have, anecdotally, seen smaller magnetic 'shards' move - about 10 times smaller in each dimension, and about 10 times slower too. We aren't focusing on scaling down right now; instead we are working on exploring the possibilities with these "larger" micro-scale magnets, such as multiple magnet control and robotic manipulation/soccer playing.
Outstanding. Don't get me wrong, this is still very impressive. Getting anything to behave the way you want at that level is an accomplishment. The only reason I asked about scaling down was because this article put so much emphasis on its possible biotech applications. 200 microns would be just a bit too large to maneuver well in certain places. Well good luck to you, I hope this pans out well, or at the very least that someone gets to write enough papers off of this to get tenure.
Are there plans to move this into the 3D realm? Also, how could this method of control be used to target cells? Would you have huge electromagnets surrounding a person and one single device being controlled by it while X-Rays allow you to see where it needs to go? Obviously this is impractical. I would imagine the device needs to be self-powered, smaller, and it needs to be attracted to the cell type it is targeting, or it would need some kind of recognition and guidance system. Well, I know these experiments are not targeting a specific application and I think it may have been premature to suggest that this control mechanism would be used to target cells. I think it's going to be a long time before robots make more sense than up and coming techniques such as RNA interference when it comes to targeting cells.
I think I saw this on an episode of G1 Transformers. The kid in the wheelchair made a device to control the constructicons once they merged in to devastator. (man is my life sad)....
As long as you are not hosting 4 6' tall glass cases stuffed full of transformers that only account for a 1/10 of your former collection inside your apartment, I think you will be OK.
Awesome.
Great job Chytra and Steve! I work in the same lab with them, and these guys are awesome.
i want to see an advanced implementation of this where a piece of metal can be suspended in space at a fixed orientation and distance with respect to the handheld magnetic control device
then you could coat the metal piece with a mirror finish and have a laser on the control device shine light that would be reflected back and forth between the two...
it would effectively be a photon sword, given a powerful enough laser. maybe call it a "laser shiv" or something
wow