As a frontier in the field of robotics, nano-robot has bright prospect in application in noninvasive surgery, drug transmission and micro/nano manufacturing, etc, attracting broad attention from scientist all over the world. Significant progress have been made in nano-robotics over the past few decades, however, scientists are still confronting tough issues such as energy supply, driver control and operation flexibility.

Recently, researchers from Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have proposed a bio-tweezer system to flexibly manipulate micro-objects with bio-actuation via local light-induced high-concentration microorganisms in two different manipulation modes: light-spot induced mode and geometric shape-induced mode.

This result was published on Soft Matter as a cover story, titled Bio-syncretic tweezers actuated by microorganisms: modeling and analysis, 2016, 12(36): 7485-7494. It was supported by National Natural Science Foundation and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Source: Robotics Department