Magnetic jamming opens new frontiers for microrobotics

Might tiny magnetic objects, that quickly clump collectively and immediately disintegrate once more, in the future carry out delicate procedures contained in the human physique? A brand new research from researchers on the Max Planck Institute for Clever Methods in Stuttgart and at ETH Zurich introduces a wi-fi technique to stiffen and calm down small constructions utilizing magnetic fields, with out wires, pumps, or bodily contact.

In music, “jamming” refers back to the spontaneous gathering of musicians who usually improvise with out aiming for a predefined final result. In physics, jamming describes the transition of a fabric from a fluid-like to a solid-like state—like a site visitors jam, the place the movement of vehicles abruptly stops. This transformation will also be triggered on demand, providing a strong and versatile technique to management stiffness for robotic methods.

In most robotic functions, jamming is achieved utilizing vacuum methods that suck air out of versatile enclosures crammed with supplies equivalent to particles, fibers, or grains. However these methods require pumps, valves, and tubing—making them troublesome to miniaturize.

That is the place the work of Buse Aktaş, head of the “Robotic Composites and Compositions (RoCoCo) Group” on the Max Planck Institute for Clever Methods, is available in. Along with colleagues from ETH Zürich, Aktaş developed a technique to jam and unjam magnetic particles utilizing solely wi-fi magnetic fields—no tubes or pumps required.

“We mixed magnetic and non-magnetic supplies into composite particles that may appeal to and cling to 1 one other on demand,” explains Aktaş. “When the magnetic subject is switched off, they simply disintegrate. This reversible and programmable clumping permits us to remotely tune the mechanical properties of supplies.”

Within the paper revealed in Nature Communications on September 30, the crew offered millimeter-sized, dice-shaped magnetic composite particles which they positioned on a platform surrounded by magnetic coils.

Relying on the composite design and the configuration of the magnetic subject, the particles appeal to one another to type aggregates—alongside strains, surfaces, or all through a quantity. The ensuing system allows constructions to assemble, stiffen, calm down, or break aside, all through magnetic management.

Whereas the present prototypes are just a few millimeters in measurement, the researchers intention to scale the system right down to the micrometer stage—beginning with a deeper understanding of the basic physics behind magnetic jamming.

“Vacuum-based or different tethered actuation strategies, equivalent to electrostatic methods, do not scale simply,” Aktaş explains. “However with magnetism, we are able to scale back the scale of the constructing blocks whereas sustaining management over their habits. This introduces a brand new technique for attaining wi-fi, reversible mechanical management at small scales—providing a basis for future instruments in microrobotics, good supplies, biomedical methods, and micro-manipulation.”