Magnetic Spray-Coated Millirobots for Adaptive Object Conversion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing millirobots face challenges in adapting to diverse objects with various structures and shapes due to their fixed structure and limited deformability, and they struggle with size increment and interaction in narrow spaces.
Innovation Solution
A minimalist millirobot construction approach that transforms inanimate objects into small-scale robots by coating them with a highly adhesive and wettable spray composition, allowing for programmable actuation direction and controllable magnetic induced disintegration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional robots are designed with extra dexterous end effector to interact with objects, then the robot can perform picking, placing, and transportation tasks, but the robot size increases and it becomes difficult to operate in narrow spaces
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the robot body and end effector into a single integrated unit by coating the entire surface of the robot with adhesive material. This eliminates the need for separate end effectors and reduces overall robot size while maintaining object interaction capabilities through the adhesive-covered surface.
Solution Approach 2:
The adhesive coating provides universal interaction capability across the entire robot surface, allowing the robot to perform picking, placing, and manipulation tasks without requiring specialized end effectors. The same adhesive surface serves multiple functions for different object interaction tasks.
2Volume of moving object
If soft materials are used to blur the boundary between robot body and end effector, then the robot size is reduced and flexibility is enhanced, but the inherent structure of the robot becomes fixed after fabrication with limited deformability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamic magnetic fields to actuate the magnetic particles within the adhesive coating, enabling the robot to change its shape and morphology dynamically after fabrication. This provides programmable deformability without requiring a complex internal structure, resolving the contradiction between size reduction and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The robot is constructed as a composite material system combining a soft substrate with embedded magnetic particles in an adhesive coating. This composite structure enables both size reduction and programmable deformability through magnetic actuation, as the magnetic particles can be repositioned dynamically within the soft matrix.
3Reliability
If the millirobot is designed to handle diverse objects with various structures and shapes, then the robot must have unmodifiable structure after fabrication, but this limits the robot's ability to adapt to different target sizes and shapes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the magnetic field parameters (strength, direction, frequency) to control the deformation and morphology of the adhesive coating. This allows the robot to adapt its shape and size to match diverse objects while maintaining structural stability through controlled magnetic actuation, resolving the contradiction between reliability and adaptability.
4Shape
If a thin covered film is applied to preserve the target's original size and morphology, then the target's structure is maintained, but the robot's ability to interact with and manipulate the target is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The thin covered film is constructed as a composite material containing magnetic particles within an adhesive matrix. This enables the film to remain thin enough to preserve target morphology while providing magnetic actuation capability for robot-object interaction and manipulation through external magnetic field control.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables effective robot-object interaction at small scales with minimal size increment, preserving the original size, morphology, and structure of the target objects, and allows for diverse locomotion modes and controllable disintegration.
Implementation Method 1
coating a target's surface with a highly adhesive and wettable spray composition
Implementation Method 2
Under actuation of magnetic field, the constructed millirobots are able to demonstrate a range of locomotive abilities
Implementation Method 3
controllable magnetic induced disintegration
Data Source
AI summary
This invention provides parasitic millirobots that can effectively adapt to an unstructured environment and coherently interact with diverse objects in order to fulfil various application needs. Particularly, a minimalist millirobot construction strategy by splashing composited agglutinate magnetic spray (M-spray) is adopted, which is capable of self-turning multifarious milli-/centi-objects into parasitic millirobots on-demand. Through taking full advantage of the objects' inherent structure and a covered thin drivable film, the M-spray demonstrates superior handling (from 1-D to 3-D structures) and loading capabilities (up to thousand-fold and hundred-fold of its volume and weight, respectively) while with neglectable size increment (as low as 1%) to target. Moreover, benefitting from peculiarities of online reprogramming and controllable disintegration, the parasitic millirobots can rewrite its locomotion mode according to the task and disintegrate themselves after mission accomplished, offering high adaptivity and compatibility for in vivo biomedical applications. Methods for conversion and fabrication thereof are also provided.