NRI: Small: Magnetic Mobile Micro-Robotic Swarms using Smart Magnetic Composites

该奖项的研究目标是为特定应用开发大量磁性移动微型机器人的建模、设计和控制方法。本文提出了一种新型智能磁性复合材料制成的微型机器人，用于在人体内部、微流控芯片和小型桌面工作空间等狭小的密闭空间中进行二维和三维的远程、并联磁驱动和控制。该研究将产生足够通用的方法，适用于所有磁性微机器人系统，并可用于各种应用。可交付成果包括基础建模、分析、设计和制造工具的目录，通过硬件演示和验证，研究成果的文档和工程学生教育。如果成功，这项研究的结果将为创造新的微型机器人系统提供机会，用于医疗保健、微流体生物设备、组织工程、可编程物质和桌面微制造应用。研究结果将得到传播，以便为医学、生物工程和微型制造应用创造商业微型机器人设备。研究生和本科生将受益于课堂教学和参与研究。该项目的研究成果将以公开讲座的形式呈现给儿童、K-12学生、K-12教师、IEEE学生会员和大学生。该项目的成果也将在科学博物馆展出，以教育公众和儿童了解微型机器人。

The research objective of this award is to develop methods for modeling, design and control of a large number of magnetic mobile micro-robots for a given specific application. Here, micro-robots are proposed to be made of novel smart magnetic composites for remote, parallel magnetic actuation and control in two dimensions and three dimensions in small confined spaces such as inside the human body, a micro-fluidic chip, and small desktop workspaces. The research will result in methods which are general enough to apply across all magnetic micro-robotic systems and that can be exploited in diverse applications. Deliverables include a catalog of fundamental modeling, analysis, design and fabrication tools, demonstration and validation via hardware, documentation of research results, and engineering student education.If successful, the results of this research will provide an opportunity to create new micro-robotic systems for use in health-care, microfluidic bio-devices, tissue engineering, programmable matter, and desktop micro-manufacturing applications. The results will be disseminated to allow the creation of commercial micro-robotic devices for medical, bioengineering and micro-manufacturing applications. Graduate and undergraduate engineering students will benefit through classroom instruction and involvement in the research. The research results of the project will be presented to children, K-12 students, K-12 teachers, IEEE student members, and college students through public lectures. The achievements of the project will be also exhibited in science museums for educating the public and children on micro-robotics.