2024/12/03 by Yeji Lee, Lee, Yeji, Vineeth Kumar Bandari +10
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Materials and Mechanics #FOS: Electrical engineering #Micro and Nano Robotics #Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence #Systems and Control (eess.SY) #electronic engineering #information engineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2412.02224
openalex publication_date 2024/12/03 · openalex created_date 2024/12/06 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Modular microrobotics can potentially address many information-intensive microtasks in medicine, manufacturing and the environment. However, surface area has limited the natural powering, communication, functional integration, and self-assembly of smart mass-fabricated modular robotic devices at small scales. We demonstrate the integrated self-folding and self-rolling of functionalized patterned interior and exterior membrane surfaces resulting in programmable, self-assembling, inter-communicating and self-locomoting micromodules (smartlets ess-than 1 mm3) with interior chambers for on-board buoyancy control. The microbotic divers, with 360 deg solar harvesting rolls, function with sufficient ambient power for communication and programmed locomotion in water via electrolysis. The folding faces carry rigid microcomponents including silicon chiplets as microprocessors and micro-LEDs for communication. This remodels modular microrobotics closer to the surface-rich modular autonomy of biological cells and provides an economical platform for microscopic applications.