Researchers at Cornell University have engineered microscopic robots, measuring less than 1 millimeter in size, which can be printed as a 2D hexagonal metasheet but transform into predefined 3D shapes upon electrical stimulation. This versatility is attributed to a groundbreaking design based on kirigami, a relative of origami, that enables the material to fold, expand, and locomote by slicing it.
The team’s study, titled Autonomus Mobile Robots Market was published in Nature Materials. The research was led by Itai Cohen, a professor of physics, with co-lead authors being postdoctoral researchers Qingkun Liu and Wei Wang. Previously, Cohen’s lab created microrobotic systems capable of actuating their limbs, pumping water using artificial cilia, and autonomous walking.
Cohen explained that the inspiration for the . came from living organisms that can alter their shape. However, most robots maintain a static shape once fabricated, despite being able to move certain limbs. To address this, the researchers developed a metasheet robot, where the ‘meta’ signifies metamaterials, which are made up of numerous interconnected building blocks that work together to give the material its mechanical properties.
The robot consists of approximately 100 silicon dioxide panels connected through over 200 actuating hinges, each about 10 nanometers thick. When electrochemically activated via external wires, the hinges form mountain and valley folds, causing the panels to splay open and rotate, enabling the robot to change its coverage area and locally expand and contract by up to 40%. Depending on which hinges are activated, the robot can assume various shapes and potentially encircle other objects, then unfold back into a flat sheet.
Cohen’s team envisions the future of metasheet technology, anticipating the integration of their flexible mechanical structures with electronic controllers to create ultra-responsive elastronic materials with unique properties that would never occur in nature. Applications could encompass reconfigurable micromachines, miniaturized biomedical devices, and materials that react to impact at near-light speeds instead of the speed of sound.
Researchers from Cornell University have created a tiny robot, less than 1 millimeter in size, that prints 2D hexagonal metasheets but uses only a small amount of electricity. So it can crawl into pre-programmed 3D shapes. The robot’s versatility helps Kirigami Origami’s cousin, it can fold, expand and move shredded materials.
The team’s paper, Electronically Configurable Microscopic Metasheet Robots, appears in Nature Materials. The paper’s co-authors are postdoctoral researcher Qingkun Liu and Wei Wang. Professor of Physics Itai Cohen led the project previously. His lab has created a micro-robotic system that can manipulate limbs. Pumping water through an artificial eye and can move automatically
On the one hand, the birth of kirigami robots was inspired by shape-changing creatures, Liu said. However, when people create robots, When completed The robot may be able to move partially. But the overall shape remains constant. So we created a metamaterial robot. ‘Meta’ is short for metamaterial, which means they are made up of many parts that can work together to give the material its mechanical behavior.
The robot is a hexagonal tiling made of about 100 silicon dioxide panels connected via more than 200 actuated hinges, each about 10 nanometers thin. Valves form folds of hills and valleys. And to open the panel. and work to rotate, allowing the robot to expand and contract in space by up to 40% to change its coverage area. The robot can take on a variety of shapes and may wrap itself around other objects depending on which valves are activated. Then spread itself back onto a flat surface. .Cohen’s team is.
Moreover, the electronics on each individual building block can harness energy from light, allowing the material to respond in programmed ways to various stimuli. Instead of deforming when prodded, these materials could ‘run’ away or counteract with greater force than the stimulus applied, Cohen stated. The researchers believe that these active metamaterials, or elastronic materials, could serve as the foundation for a new type of intelligent matter governed by physical principles beyond what exists in the natural world.
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