Untethered Micro/Nanorobots for Remote Sensing:Toward Intelligent Platform

Untethered micro/nanorobots that can wirelessly control their motion and deformation state have gained enormous interest in remote sensing applications due to their unique motion characteristics in various media and diverse functionalities.Researchers are developing micro/nanorobots as innovative tools to improve sensing performance and miniaturize sensing systems,enabling in situ detection of substances that traditional sensing methods struggle to achieve.Over the past decade of development,significant research progress has been made in designing sensing strategies based on micro/nanorobots,employing various coordinated control and sensing approaches.This review summarizes the latest developments on micro/nanorobots for remote sensing applications by utilizing the self-generated signals of the robots,robot behavior,microrobotic manipulation,and robot-environment interactions.Providing recent studies and relevant applications in remote sensing,we also discuss the challenges and future perspectives facing micro/nanorobots-based intelligent sensing platforms to achieve sensing in complex environments,translating lab research achievements into widespread real applications.

A Novel Tele-Operated Flexible Robot Targeted for Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery

In this paper, a novel flexible robot system with a constrained tendon-driven serpentine manipulator(CTSM) is presented. The CTSM gives the robot a larger workspace, more dexterous manipulation, and controllable stiffness compared with the da Vinci surgical robot and traditional flexible robots. The robot is tele-operated using the Novint Falcon haptic device. Two control modes are implemented, direct mapping and incremental mode. In each mode, the robot can be manipulated using either the highest stiffness scheme or the minimal movement scheme. The advantages of the CTSM are shown by simulation and experimental results.

Neurovascular ageing:transcriptomic readout and implications on therapeutic targeting in Alzheimer’s disease

Ageing is one of the greatest risk factors for neurodegenerative diseases.How the complex biological changes in ageing increase the brain’s susceptibility to neurodegeneration remains incompletely understood.Research into neurodegenerative disorders has shifted from a neuron-centric approach,to the contributing roles of age-related neurovascular and glial cell dysfunction.

Central Pattern Generator(CPG)Control of a Biomimetic Robot Fish for Multimodal Swimming

This paper introduces the design and control of a biomimetic robot fish for multimodal swimming.The biomimetic design consists of three parts:the rigid head,the wire-driven body and the compliant tail.The control is an improved Central Pattern Generator(CPG)with the high-level control command:(M,co,B,R),where M is the amplitude,co is the angular velocity,B is the offtet and R is the time ratio between two phases forming one flapping cycle.This method differs from previous research in two aspects:(1)The CPG control is firstly implemented on the wire-driven robot fish.(2)The improved CPG model synthesizes symmetrical flapping in cruising and asymmetrical flapping in turning for the robot fish.The asymmetrical flapping refers to the asymmetry of the offset and the time ratio.This combination of the design and the control has several advantages over the existing multimodal swimming robot fishes.First,it uses just one driving motor for undulatory oscillation while the others need to use two or more motors.Second,with just one motor,the CPG control can be easily implemented.Third,the use of the time ratio,R,makes the robot fish turn more naturally and effectively.Experimental results show the robot fish achieved the maximum speed of 1.37 Body Length/Second(BL.s-1)and the largest turning rate of 4577s.Additionally,in many swimming conditions,its Strouhal Number falls in the range from 0.2 to 0.4,which implies the robot fish is efficient.

Light-Triggered Catalytic Performance Enhancement Using Magnetic Nanomotor Ensembles

Micro/nanomachines have attracted extensive attention in the biomedical and environmental fields for realizing functionalities at small scales.However,they have been rarely investigated as active nanocatalysts.Heterogeneous nanocatalysts have exceptional reusability and recyclability,and integration with magnetic materials enables their recovery with minimum loss.Herein,we propose a model active nanocatalyst using magnetic nanomotor ensembles(MNEs)that can degrade contaminants in an aqueous solution with high catalytic performance.MNEs composed of a magnetite core coated with gold nanoparticles as the nanocatalyst can rotate under the action of a programmable external field and carry out rapid reduction of 4-nitrophenol(4-NP).The hydrogen bubbles generated in the catalytic reaction provide random perturbations for the MNEs to travel in the reaction solution,resulting in uniform processing.The reduction can be further boosted by irradiation with near-infrared(NIR)light.Magnetic field induces the rotation of the MNEs and provides microstirring in the catalysis.Light enhances the catalytic activity via the photothermal effect.These MNEs are also capable of moving to the targeted region through the application of a programmable magnetic field and then process the contaminant in the targeted region.We expect that such magnetic MNEs may help better in applying active heterogeneous nanocatalysts with magnetic field and light-enhanced performance in industrial applications due to their advantages of low material cost and short reaction time.