Journal
SCIENCE ADVANCES
Volume 8, Issue 37, Pages -Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abq1677
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu province [BK20210717]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [62103294, 61925304]
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [7111795721, 7111785821]
- Postdoctoral Research Support of Jiangsu province [7111751621]
- Max Planck Society
- European Research Council (ERC) [834531]
- German Research Foundation (DFG) Soft Material Robotic Systems (SPP 2100) Program [2197/3-1]
- Robot and Microsystem Research Center of Soochow University
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Magnetic miniature soft robots have the potential to facilitate biomedical applications with minimal invasiveness and physical damage. In this study, researchers have developed scale-reconfigurable miniature ferrofluidic robots (SMFRs) based on ferrofluid droplets and proposed control strategies for achieving trans-scale motion control. The results demonstrate that SMFRs can vary in size from centimeters to micrometers, allowing for locomotion, deformation through gaps, and reversible scale reconfiguration for navigating variable spaces.
Magnetic miniature soft robots have shown great potential for facilitating biomedical applications by minimizing invasiveness and possible physical damage. However, researchers have mainly focused on fixed-size robots, with their active locomotion accessible only when the cross-sectional dimension of these confined spaces is comparable to that of the robot. Here, we realize the scale-reconfigurable miniature ferrofluidic robots (SMFRs) based on ferrofluid droplets and propose a series of control strategies for reconfiguring SMFR's scale and deformation to achieve trans-scale motion control by designing a multiscale magnetic miniature robot actuation (M3RA) system. The results showed that SMFRs, varying from centimeters to a few micrometers, leveraged diverse capabilities, such as locomotion in structured environments, deformation to squeeze through gaps, and even reversible scale reconfiguration for navigating sharply variable spaces. A miniature robot system with these capabilities combined is promising to be applied in future wireless medical robots inside confined regions of the human body.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available