Alexey Snezhko and Igor Aronson, physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, have coaxed “micro-robots” to do their bidding.
The robots, just half a millimeter wide, are composed of microparticles. Confined between two liquids, they assemble themselves into star shapes when an alternating magnetic field is applied. Snezhko and Aronson can control the robots’ movement and even make them pick up, transport and put down other non-magnetic particles—potentially enabling fabrication of precisely designed functional materials in ways not currently possible. via Robotics Trends
October 10, 2011
