SBIR Phase l: Micro-Robotic Wetware Development (MicRobowet) For Micro-Organisms Detection and Manipulation

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段的工作提议开发一种微型机器人湿件系统（MicRobowet），其形式是集成的微夹持器/传感器阵列，用于在潮湿的水环境中对微生物（如细菌、病原体、代谢物、病毒、真菌、原生动物、地衣、黏菌等）进行主动生物检测和机器人操作。在第一阶段的工作中，只有小样本的膨胀聚丙烯酰胺水凝胶将用于模拟软微生物。微型机器人湿件系统是由一组由离子聚合物人造肌肉制成的柔软微型抓手实现的。该系统旨在利用离子聚合物金属复合材料（IPMC）微钳在生物流体介质中良好的抓取和传感特性，对流体介质中的微生物进行检测和识别。拟议的活动所产生的更广泛的影响是，如果成功，它将影响食品、制药、健康、环境修复、农业、微生物学、饮料酿造、海洋和海洋、安全、基因工程和基因组、动物、水净化、航运、所有生物技术公司、生物技术项目以及涉及微生物检测和操纵的研究人员和科学教师等行业。拟议的发展进一步积极影响病原微生物的快速检测和分类，以保障安全和国土安全。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I effort proposes to develop a micro-robotic wetware system (MicRobowet) in the form of an integrated microgripper/sensor array for active biological detection and robotic manipulation of micro-organisms such as bacteria, pathogens, metabolites, viruses, fungi, protozoa, lichens, slime molds, etc. in a wet water environment. In the Phase I effort, only small samples of swollen polyacrylamide hydrogel will be used for the simulation of soft micro-organisms. The micro-robotic wetware system is enabled by an array of soft micro grippers made with ionic polymeric artificial muscles.The proposed system is intended for the detection and discrimination of micro-organisms in fluidic media using the grasping and sensing properties of ionic polymeric metal composite (IPMC) microgrippers which work well in biological fluidic media. The broader impacts resulting from the proposed activity is that if successful it will impact industries such as food, pharmaceutical, health, environmental remediation, agriculture, microbiologic, beverage brewing, ocean and marine, security, genetic engineering and genome, animal, water purification, shipping, all biotechnology companies, biotechnology programs and researchers and science teachers involved with detection and manipulation of micro-organisms. The proposed development further positively impacts rapid detection and classification of pathogenic micro-organisms for safety and homeland security considerations.