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Lasers Assemble Miniature Robots from Bubbles

Robots are widely used to build cars, paint airplanes, and other big manufacturing and assembly roles in factories. But the assembly of microscopic components requires much more intricate automation, and new research suggests that lasers could be the solution. Now, researchers from China reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces  have used lasers to create miniature robots from bubbles that lift, drop, and manipulate small pieces into interconnected structures. Different types of parts are assembled to form various structures like gears, snake-shaped chains, and vehicles, which are then driven by bubble microrobots to perform different forms of movement. The researchers say this assembly technology is simple and efficient and is expected to play an important role in micro-operation, modular assembly, and tissue engineering.

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Automation Manufacturing & Prototyping Medical Motion Control Photonics Robotics

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    Transcript

    00:00:05 In factories, robots are widely used for many purposes, such as building cars, painting airplanes and sewing clothing. The assembly of microscopic components, such as those used for tissue engineering or biomedical devices, requires much more intricate automation. Manufacturing has miniaturized to construct objects that are the same thickness as a sheet of paper. But it’s hard to position such small pieces by hand. Lasers could be the solution. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have used lasers to create miniature manufacturing robots from bubbles that lift,…manipulate … and drop

    00:00:44 small pieces into interconnected structures. Scientists have used bubbles to move miniature parts in water, for example, to assemble 2D objects, like placing these “donuts” on a rod, or to rotate shapes in 3D space. However, these bubbles could not combine separate pieces and then move them as a single object. So, Niandong Jiao, Lianquing Liu and colleagues wanted to build on their previous work with lasers to develop bubble microrobots that can form inseparable shapes and control their movement. The researchers created microbubbles in water by focusing a laser underneath a small piece of resin. The bubble’s size was controlled by rapidly switching the laser on and off, with more

    00:01:26 time in the “on position” resulting in larger bubbles. Once the laser turned off, the bubbles dissolved slowly, dropping the resin in place. By shifting the laser’s location, the researchers made a mobile robot. The bubble microrobots can lift and drop parts, move single pieces to designated positions and connect the components. The team also combined two bubble microrobots with different functions that could simultaneously act as a rotational axis and push assembled objects. Unbreakable connections made by various types of joints allowed the bubble microrobots to move three- and four-pronged gears, a snake-shaped chain and a miniature 3D vehicle. The bubble microrobots have implications for the future of microscopic manufacturing, the

    00:02:16 researchers say.