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

[John Grigg]

How far do you think we will be in twenty years time?

On Sat, Sep 12, 2020 at 3:14 PM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> 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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