中国科研人员开发出“蚁群”微型机器人

新华社3月22日消息，中国科研人员日前开发出一种磁性微游动机器人，可像“蚁群”一样成千上万地组队协同作业，有望为高效靶向给药和体内成像提供解决方案。

发表在新一期美国《科学·机器人学》杂志上的这一研究显示，这种呈花生状的磁性机器人长3微米，直径2微米，只有头发丝直径的约四十分之一。由大量这种机器人组成的群体可在旋转磁场的调控下变为长链，在狭长的模拟毛细血管中穿行。


多模转换和集体操作 图《科学·机器人学》

论文作者之一、哈尔滨工业大学机器人技术与系统国家重点实验室谢晖教授在接受新华社记者采访时说，这些机器人之间通过非常小的作用力交流，形成一个动态系统，就像蚁群用触觉或气味交流一样。

谢晖说，大自然中，群体协作可解决个体无法胜任的复杂问题，如蚁群可搬运超重猎物、鲱鱼群可捕获非常警觉的桡足类动物，研究人员受其启发，构建了微游动机器人群体，使其具备快速的环境应变能力和多任务机动功能。

研究显示，这些机器人能够模拟自然界的蚁群和鲱鱼捕食阵列，完成大负载可控输送与大面积同步集群操作。

谢晖说，这种机器人将来可用于医疗方面，比如通过体内导航控制，成千上万个装载药物的微游动机器人组成的群体可直达病灶部位，识别并攻击病变细胞，还有望留存在体内监控健康状况，从而为疾病的早期诊断与治疗提供新方法。


Reconfigurable magnetic microrobot swarm: Multimode transformation, locomotion, and manipulation

1. Xui Xie1,*,†, Mengmeng Sun1,†, Xinjian Fan1,†, Zhihua Lin1, Weinan Chen1, Lei Wang1, Lixin Dong2,3,* and Qiang He1,*

Science Robotics  20 Mar 2019:
Vol. 4, Issue 28, eaav8006
DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aav8006

Abstract
Swimming microrobots that are energized by external magnetic fields exhibit a variety of intriguing collective behaviors, ranging from dynamic self-organization to coherent motion; however, achieving multiple, desired collective modes within one colloidal system to emulate high environmental adaptability and enhanced tasking capabilities of natural swarms is challenging. Here, we present a strategy that uses alternating magnetic fields to program hematite colloidal particles into liquid, chain, vortex, and ribbon-like microrobotic swarms and enables fast and reversible transformations between them. The chain is characterized by passing through confined narrow channels, and the herring school–like ribbon procession is capable of large-area synchronized manipulation, whereas the colony-like vortex can aggregate at a high density toward coordinated handling of heavy loads. Using the developed discrete particle simulation methods, we investigated generation mechanisms of these four swarms, as well as the “tank-treading” motion of the chain and vortex merging. In addition, the swarms can be programmed to steer in any direction with excellent maneuverability, and the vortex’s chirality can be rapidly switched with high pattern stability. This reconfigurable microrobot swarm can provide versatile collective modes to address environmental variations or multitasking requirements; it has potential to investigate fundamentals in living systems and to serve as a functional bio-microrobot system for biomedicine.

RESEARCH ARTICLE MICROROBOTS
论文链接：
http://robotics.sciencemag.org/content/4/28/eaav8006


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