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

[Adrian Tymes]

Well yeah.  Just stating so we know how far this has already gotten.

On Fri, Sep 11, 2020 at 11:17 PM John Grigg via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> 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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