Light-Driven Micro-Robot Designed to Swim Autonomously in Viscous Liquids Could Be Used for Unblocking Blood Vessels

The core of this pioneering research, conducted by scientists from Tampere University (Tampere, Finland) and Anhui Jianzhu University (Hefei, China), involves a synthetic material called liquid crystalline elastomer, which responds to stimuli such as laser light. When heated, this material rotates on its own due to a unique zero-elastic-energy mode (ZEEM), created by the interaction of static and dynamic forces. This innovation in toroidal design simplifies the control of swimming robots by eliminating the need for complicated architectures. Using a single beam of light to trigger non-reciprocal motion, these micro-robots harness ZEEM to autonomously control their movements. This allows for three-dimensional swimming in the Stokes regime, facilitating the exploration of confined spaces such as microfluidic environments. Additionally, these toroidal robots can switch between rolling and self-propulsion modes to better adapt to different surroundings.

The researchers emphasize that this discovery is a major leap forward in the field of soft robotics and opens the door to developing micro-robots capable of navigating complex environments. Future studies will likely focus on interactions and collective dynamics among multiple toroidal robots, potentially leading to new methods of communication between these intelligent micro-robots. The findings, recently published in Nature Materials, are the culmination of two major research projects. The first, STORM-BOTS, aims to train a new generation of researchers in soft robotics with a focus on liquid crystal elastomers. This project seeks to develop light-driven soft robots that move efficiently in both air and water. The second project, ONLINE, investigates non-equilibrium soft actuator systems to enable self-sustained motion, facilitating new robotic functions such as locomotion, interaction, and communication.