Untethered submillimeter microrobots have significant application prospects in environment monitoring, reconnaissance, and biomedicine. However, they are practically limited to their slow movement. Here, an electrical/opticalactuated microactuator is reported and developed into several untethered ultrafast submillimeter robots. Composed of multilayer nanofilms with exquisitely designed patterns and high surface-to-volume ratios, the microrobot exhibits flexible, precise, and rapid response under voltages and lasers, resulting in controllable and ultrafast inchworm-type movement. The proposed design and microfabrication approach allows various improved and distinctive 3D microrobots simultaneously. The motion speed is highly related to the laser frequency and reaches 2.96 mm/s (3.66 body length/s) on the polished wafer surface. Excellent movement adaptability of the robot is also verified on other rough substrates. Moreover, directional locomotion can be realized simply by the bias of the irradiation of the laser spot, and the maximum angular speed reaches 167.3°/s. Benefiting from the bimorph film structure and symmetrical configuration, the microrobot is able to maintain functionalized after being crashed by a payload 67 000 times heavier than its weight, or at the unexpectedly reversed state. These results provide a strategy for 3D microactuators with precise and rapid response, and microrobots with fast movement for delicate tasks in narrow and restrictive scenarios.
Micro-grippers are highly desired in engineering, robotics, and biomedicine. However, on the basis of satisfying the requirements of miniaturization, precise manipulation, and low power consumption, the existing micro-grippers are difficult to achieve rapid response simultaneously. In this paper, we present a bimorph electrothermal micro-gripper that composed of several metal ultrathin films with high surface-to-volume ratios, allowing rapid heating and cooling processes. Patterns of these films are exquisitely designed so that the micro-gripper naturally forms an embedded circuit to optimize the current distribution. The micro-gripper can be precisely actuated under voltages below 2 V, while dramatically responding to pulse voltages up to 100 Hz. By interacting with a silica particle 96 times heavier than its weight, potential applications of the micro-gripper in robotics, organic tissue engineering, and interventional surgery can be shown. The advantage to be compatible with other semiconductor components ensures that the functions of the micro-gripper can be further expanded.
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