Memristor Circuits for Colloidal Robotics: Temporal Access to Memory, Sensing, and Actuation

Abstract

Micrometer‐scale robots capable of navigating enclosed spaces and remote locations are approaching reality. However, true autonomy remains an open challenge despite substantial progress made with externally supervised and manipulated systems. To accelerate the development of autonomous microrobots, alternatives to conventional top‐down lithography are sought. Such additive technologies like printing, coating, and colloidal self‐assembly allow for rapid prototyping and access to novel materials, such as polymers, bio‐ and nanomaterials. On the basis of recent experimental findings that memristive networks can be rapidly printed and lifted off as electronic microparticles, an alternative design paradigm is introduced based on arrays of two‐terminal memristive elements, which enables real‐time use of memory, sensing, and actuation in microrobots. Several memristor‐based designs are validated, each representing a key building block toward robotic autonomy: tracking elapsed time, timestamping a rare event, continuously cataloguing time‐indexed data, and accessing the collected information for a feedback‐controlled response as in a robotic glucose‐responsive insulin. The computational results establish an actionable framework for microrobotic design—tasks normally requiring complex circuits can now be achieved with self‐assembled and printed memristor arrays within microparticles.

Micro/Nanorobotic Swarms: From Fundamentals to Functionalities

“…Genetically engineered bacteria has shown quantifiable swarm behaviors in response to the temperature, humidity, and concentration of chemicals, thereby proving the concept of swarm-based information encoding and decoding . Electronically integrated microagents , and colloidal state machines (i.e., micro/nanoscale colloidal particles with electronic materials) , have been fabricated despite the challenges in the integration of onboard processors, sensors, actuators, power sources, and communication modules on a single micro/nanoagent, and computational studies have shown that a swarm of memristor-integrated microagents can be capable of achieving automated regulation of glucose . In the future, circuit-integrated micro/nanoagents would endow micro/nanorobotic swarms with enhanced intelligence for autonomy to circumvent external guidance.…”

“…386 Electronically integrated microagents 387,388 and colloidal state machines (i.e., micro/nanoscale colloidal particles with electronic materials) 389,390 have been fabricated despite the challenges in the integration of onboard processors, sensors, actuators, power sources, and communication modules on a single micro/nanoagent, and computational studies have shown that a swarm of memristor-integrated microagents can be capable of achieving automated regulation of glucose. 391 In the future, circuit-integrated micro/nanoagents would endow micro/nanorobotic swarms with enhanced intelligence for autonomy to circumvent external guidance. Overall, with the close collaboration among researchers with expertise across diverse fields, the next decade will witness a multitude of such advances in micro/nanorobotic swarms to fully realize their potential.…”

Emergent microrobotic oscillators via asymmetry-induced order

“…By relying on our system's self-organised behaviours, we circumvented the design of complex contraptions to harvest and transduce chemical energy into periodic electrical and mechanical work-a crucial step towards fully-autonomous microrobots 62,64 . The use of on-board electrical currents will enable the integration of sensors and computational elements to enrich physical microparticle interactions 65 , forming the basis for future collectives wherein the long-envisioned potential of complex interparticle communications can be implemented 40 . We plan on extending our approach into studying larger collections of microparticles in search of general principles for the top-down design of active matter systems, where an understanding of system symmetries and environmental forcing may enhance their task-capability.…”

Emergent Microrobotic Oscillators via Asymmetry-Induced Order

“…By relying on our system's self-organized behaviours, we circumvented the design of complex contraptions to harvest and transduce chemical energy into periodic electrical and mechanical worka crucial step towards fully-autonomous microrobots [75,76]. The use of on-board electrical currents will enable the integration of sensors and computational elements to enrich microparticle interactions [77], forming the basis for future collectives wherein complex inter-particle communication can be implemented. We plan on extending our approach into studying larger collections of microparticles in search of general principles for the top-down design of active matter systems, where an understanding of system symmetries and environmental forcing may enhance their task-capability.…”