Simple microparticles can beat rhythmically together, generating an oscillating electrical current that could be used to power micro-robotic devices. MIT engineers are taking advantage of a phenomenon known as emergent behavior on the microscale. They have designed simple microparticles that can
MIT engineers have designed simple microparticles that can collectively generate complex behavior, such as generating an oscillating electrical current that could be used to power tiny robotic devices. This is an abstract artist’s concept, not an actual video of the microparticles.
“In addition to being interesting from a physics point of view, this behavior can also be translated into an on-board oscillatory electrical signal, which can be very powerful in microrobotic autonomy. There are a lot of electrical components that require such an oscillatory input,” says Jingfan Yang. He is one of the lead authors of the new study and a recent MIT PhD recipient.
“Ants have minuscule brains and they do very simple cognitive tasks, but collectively they can do amazing things. They can forage for food and build these elaborate tunnel structures,” Strano says. “Physicists and engineers like myself want to understand these rules because it means we can make tiny things that collectively do complex tasks.”
When the particles are placed at the surface of a droplet of hydrogen peroxide on a flat surface, they tend to travel to the top of the droplet. At this liquid-air interface, they interact with any other particles found there. Each particle produces its own tiny bubble of oxygen, and when two particles come close enough that their bubbles interact, the bubbles pop, propelling the particles away from each other. Then, they begin forming new bubbles, and the cycle repeats over and over.
This leader particle is the same size as the other particles but has a slightly larger platinum patch, which enables it to create a larger oxygen bubble. This allows this particle to move to the center of the group, where it coordinates the oscillations of all of the other particles. Using this approach, the researchers found they could create oscillators containing up to at least 11 particles.
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