Robots // Swimming Micro-Robots © Based on Material by Gatech, USA

A team of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology has used complex computational models to design swimming micro-robots that could overcome the challenges to carry cargo and navigate in response to stimuli such as light. When they’re actually built some day, these simple micro-swimmers could rely on volume changes in unique materials known as hydrogels to move tiny flaps that will propel the robots. The micro-devices could be used in drug delivery, lab-on-a-chip micro- fluidic systems – and even as micro-construction robots working in swarms. The responsive gel body would undergo periodic expansions and contractions triggered by oscillatory chemical reactions, oscillating magnetic or electric fields, or by cycles of temperature change. These expansions and contractions –  the chemical swelling and de-swelling of the material – would create a beating motion in the rigid propulsive flaps attached to each side of the micro-swimmer. Combined with the movement of the gel body, the beating motion would move the micro-swimmer forward. The trajectory of the micro-swimmer would be controlled by a flexible steering flap on its front. The flap would be made of a material that deforms based on changes in light intensity, temperature or magnetic field.

Hassan Masoud, Benjamin I. Bingham and Alexander Alexeev: Designing maneuverable micro-swimmers actuated by responsive gel, In: Soft Matter Advance Article, July 23, 2012, DOI:10.1039/C2SM25898F: http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C2SM25898F

Image: © Gatech