Electrokinetic propulsion for electronically integrated microscopic robots

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hanson, Lucas C.; Reinhardt, William H.; Shrager, Scott; Sivakumar, Tarunyaa; Miskin, Marc Z.
• 署名单位: University of Pennsylvania; University of Pennsylvania
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-13325
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2500526122
• 发表日期: 2025-07-22
• 关键词: display

摘要

Semiconductor microelectronics are emerging as a powerful tool for building smart, autonomous sub-millimeter robots. Yet a number of existing microrobot platforms, despite significant advantages in speed, robustness, power consumption, or ease of fabrication, have no clear path toward electronics integration, limiting their potential for intelligence. Here, we show how to upgrade a class of self-propelled particles into electronically integrated microrobots, reaping the best of both platforms in a single design. Inspired by electrokinetic micromotors, these robots generate electric fields in a surrounding fluid, and by extension propulsive electrokinetic flows. The underlying physics is captured by a model in which robot speed is proportional to applied current, making design and control straightforward. As proof, we build basic robots at the 100-micron scale that use rudimentary, on-board photovoltaic circuits and a closedloop optical control scheme to navigate waypoints and move in coordinated swarms at speeds of up to one body length per second. Broadly, the unification of micromotor propulsion with on-robot electronics invites future work to realize robust, fast, easy viable for months to years.