SGER: Massively Parallel Nanorobotics

该奖项以探索性研究小额拨款模式，为大规模并行操纵纳米结构的算法和控制问题的初步探索提供资金。用扫描探针显微镜(SPM)的尖端操纵这类物体是一种通过机器人组装来构建纳米器件的新兴且非常有前途的技术。然而，基于SPM的纳米组装的生产能力较低，这是大规模制造的一大缺陷。利用探头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，但还没有对它们进行编程的软件。这项SGER研究将寻求对大规模并行的SPM针尖阵列进行编程的策略和算法，以执行纳米操纵任务，例如通过在表面排列纳米颗粒来在纳米级的光盘上写入数据。其中许多任务需要TIPS之间的协作，并提出了具有挑战性的问题，将对此进行探索。一个重要的目标是降低完成任务所需的硬件的复杂性。

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.