Magnetic jamming opens new frontiers for microrobotics

Might tiny magnetic objects, that quickly clump collectively and immediately collapse once more, in the future carry out delicate procedures contained in the human physique? A brand new examine from researchers on the Max Planck Institute for Clever Programs 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 typically improvise with out aiming for a predefined end result. In physics, jamming describes the transition of a fabric from a fluid-like to a solid-like state—like a visitors jam, the place the circulate of vehicles immediately stops. This transformation will also be triggered on demand, providing a robust and versatile option to management stiffness for robotic methods.

In most robotic functions, jamming is achieved utilizing vacuum methods that suck air out of versatile enclosures stuffed with supplies equivalent to particles, fibers, or grains. However these methods require pumps, valves, and tubing—making them tough 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 Programs, is available in. Along with colleagues from ETH Zürich, Aktaş developed a option 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 area is switched off, they simply collapse. 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 area, the particles appeal to one another to type aggregates—alongside traces, surfaces, or all through a quantity. The ensuing system permits constructions to assemble, stiffen, calm down, or break aside, all by way of magnetic management.

Whereas the present prototypes are a number of millimeters in measurement, the researchers goal to scale the system all the way 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 will cut back the dimensions of the constructing blocks whereas sustaining management over their conduct. 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.”