Nanorobotics has been envisioned for more than 50 years, and holds the potential to revolutionize manufacturing, biomedicine and many other fields. While many biomolecules function in a self-actuated, programed, and environmentally sensitive manner, fulfilling our definition of nanorobots, man-made components with similar capacity and at the same length scale are limited, let alone a complete scalable robotic system constructed from the bottom up. This thrust proposes to bring robotics to the micro- and nano-scale. This goal requires development of soft, active materials as specific components, based on organic molecules, droplets and particles, and integrating them into a comprehensive framework, for demonstration of canonical tasks and an accompanying modeling, motion planning, and optimization methodology.
Thrust Members:
- Subhrajit Bhattacharya, Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics
- Angela Brown, Chemical and Biomelecular Engineering
- Javier Buceta, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Manoj Chaudhury, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Xuanhong Cheng, Materials Science and Engineering*
- James Gilchrist, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Anand Jagota, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Dmitri Vezenov, Chemistry
- Edmund Webb, Mechanical Engineering
- X. Frank Zhang, Mechanical Engineering
*Thrust Leader