[ExI] An Army of Microscopic Robots Is Ready to Patrol Your Body

[John Grigg]

Adrian Tymes wrote:
"These robots are apparently on the tens of micrometers (microns) - that
is, thousands of nanometers - across."

Well, you gotta start somewhere! Lol Eventually, scientists and engineers
will shrink them down to proper Drexlerian proportions...

John

On Wed, Sep 9, 2020 at 11:31 PM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> These robots are apparently on the tens of micrometers (microns) - that
> is, thousands of nanometers - across.
>
> On Wed, Sep 9, 2020 at 2:06 AM John Grigg via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> "If I were to picture futuristic bots that could revolutionize both
>> microrobotics and medicine, a Pop-Tart with four squiggly legs would not be
>> on top of my list.
>>
>> I was so wrong.
>>
>> Last week, Drs. Marc Miskin*, Itai Cohen, and Paul McEuen at Cornell
>> University spearheaded a collaboration
>> <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2626-9> that tackled one of
>> the most pressing problems in microrobotics—getting those robots to move in
>> a controllable manner. They graced us with an army of Pop-Tart-shaped
>> microbots with seriously tricked-out actuators, or motors that allow a
>> robot to move. In this case, the actuators make up the robot’s legs.
>>
>> Each smaller than the width of a human hair, the bots have a blocky body
>> equipped with solar cells and two pairs of platinum legs, which can be
>> independently triggered to flex using precise laser zaps. The control is so
>> accurate that the team was able to simultaneously jigger the legs of a
>> battalion of microbots in a coordinated “march.”
>>
>> If you’re not impressed yet, there’s more: unlike previous microbots that
>> relied on magnetism to move, these are basically miniaturized robots. Like
>> BigDog <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BigDog>, they have mechanical legs
>> that are controlled with silicon-based electronic components. This means
>> that it’s possible to manufacture the bots en masse using decades of
>> nanofabrication experience, similar to how we currently make computer
>> chips
>> <https://singularityhub.com/2020/08/23/moores-law-lives-intel-says-chips-will-pack-50-times-more-transistors/>
>> .
>>
>> Because the robots’ “brains” are conventional and based on classical
>> electronic circuits, it also means that they can be more easily integrated
>> with existing logic circuits to engineer even “smarter” next generations
>> that respond to more complex commands.
>>
>> “[The authors] have used a fresh design concept for their microrobots,”
>> wrote <https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02421-2> Drs. Allan
>> Brooks and Michael Strano at MIT in an accompanying piece of the paper.
>> “Because the actuators can be operated by the low-power electric currents
>> that typically flow through electronic circuits, sensors and logic
>> components could be seamlessly integrated with the actuators …This opens
>> the doors for the last 50 years of micro-electronics research to be
>> incorporated into robots <https://singularityhub.com/tag/robotics/> so
>> small they can’t be seen by the human eye.”"
>>
>> [image: nano robo.jpg]
>> I look forward to hearing a comment about this development by Eric
>> Drexler...
>>
>>
>> https://singularityhub.com/2020/09/08/an-army-of-microscopic-robots-is-ready-to-patrol-your-body/
>>
>>
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