{"title":"Coordinated behavior of autonomous microscopic machines through local electronic pulse coupling","authors":"Milad Taghavi, Wei Wang, Kyubum Shim, Jinsong Zhang, Itai Cohen, Alyssa Apsel","doi":"10.1126/scirobotics.adn8067","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div >Increasingly functional microscopic machines are poised to have massive technical influence in areas including targeted drug delivery, precise surgical interventions, and environmental remediation. Such functionalities would increase markedly if collections of these microscopic machines were able to coordinate their function to achieve cooperative emergent behaviors. Implementing such coordination, however, requires a scalable strategy for synchronization—a key stumbling block for achieving collective behaviors of multiple autonomous microscopic units. Here, we show that pulse-coupled complementary metal-oxide semiconductor oscillators offer a tangible solution for such scalable synchronization. Specifically, we designed low-power oscillating modules with attached mechanical elements that exchange electronic pulses to advance their neighbor’s phase until the entire system is synchronized with the fastest oscillator or “leader.” We showed that this strategy is amenable to different oscillator connection topologies. The cooperative behaviors were robust to disturbances that scrambled the synchronization. In addition, when connections between oscillators were severed, the resulting subgroups synchronized on their own. This advance opens the door to functionalities in microscopic robot swarms that were once considered out of reach, ranging from autonomously induced fluidic transport to drive chemical reactions to cooperative building of physical structures at the microscale.</div>","PeriodicalId":56029,"journal":{"name":"Science Robotics","volume":"9 96","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":26.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.science.org/doi/reader/10.1126/scirobotics.adn8067","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Science Robotics","FirstCategoryId":"94","ListUrlMain":"https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.adn8067","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ROBOTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Increasingly functional microscopic machines are poised to have massive technical influence in areas including targeted drug delivery, precise surgical interventions, and environmental remediation. Such functionalities would increase markedly if collections of these microscopic machines were able to coordinate their function to achieve cooperative emergent behaviors. Implementing such coordination, however, requires a scalable strategy for synchronization—a key stumbling block for achieving collective behaviors of multiple autonomous microscopic units. Here, we show that pulse-coupled complementary metal-oxide semiconductor oscillators offer a tangible solution for such scalable synchronization. Specifically, we designed low-power oscillating modules with attached mechanical elements that exchange electronic pulses to advance their neighbor’s phase until the entire system is synchronized with the fastest oscillator or “leader.” We showed that this strategy is amenable to different oscillator connection topologies. The cooperative behaviors were robust to disturbances that scrambled the synchronization. In addition, when connections between oscillators were severed, the resulting subgroups synchronized on their own. This advance opens the door to functionalities in microscopic robot swarms that were once considered out of reach, ranging from autonomously induced fluidic transport to drive chemical reactions to cooperative building of physical structures at the microscale.
期刊介绍:
Science Robotics publishes original, peer-reviewed, science- or engineering-based research articles that advance the field of robotics. The journal also features editor-commissioned Reviews. An international team of academic editors holds Science Robotics articles to the same high-quality standard that is the hallmark of the Science family of journals.
Sub-topics include: actuators, advanced materials, artificial Intelligence, autonomous vehicles, bio-inspired design, exoskeletons, fabrication, field robotics, human-robot interaction, humanoids, industrial robotics, kinematics, machine learning, material science, medical technology, motion planning and control, micro- and nano-robotics, multi-robot control, sensors, service robotics, social and ethical issues, soft robotics, and space, planetary and undersea exploration.