SGER: Massively Parallel Nanorobotics

这个奖项，在探索性研究模式的小赠款，资金的算法和控制问题的大规模并行操纵纳米级结构的初步探索。 用扫描探针显微镜（SPM）的尖端操纵这些物体是一种新兴的、非常有前途的技术，用于通过机器人组装来构建纳米器件。 然而，基于SPM的纳米组装具有低通量，这是大规模制造的主要缺点。 探针尖端阵列的并行操作可以提供吞吐量问题的解决方案。 几个实验室正在开发阵列硬件，但还没有为它们编程的软件。 这项SGER研究将寻求用于编程大规模并行SPM尖端阵列的策略和算法，以执行纳米操纵任务，例如通过在表面上排列纳米颗粒在纳米级光盘上写入数据。 这些任务中有许多需要技巧之间的合作，并提出了具有挑战性的问题，这将是探讨。 一个重要的目标是降低完成任务所需硬件的复杂性。

This award, in the Small Grants for Exploratory Research mode, funds an initial exploration of algorithmic and control issues for massively parallel manipulation of nanometer-scale structures. Manipulation of such objects with the tip of a Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM) is an emerging and very promising technique for constructing nanodevices by robotic assembly. However, SPM-based nanoassembly has a low throughput, which is a major drawback for large-scale manufacturing. Parallel operation with arrays of probe tips can provide a solution to the throughput problem. Array hardware is being developed at several laboratories, but software for programming them is unavailable. This SGER research will seek strategies and algorithms for programming massively parallel SPM tip arrays to execute nanomanipulation tasks, such as writing data on the nanoscale equivalent of a compact disk by arranging nanoparticles on a surface. Many of these tasks require collaboration between tips and raise challenging problems, which will be explored. An important goal is to reduce the complexity of the hardware necessary to accomplish the tasks.