Towards Robot-based Manipulation, Characterization and Automation at the Nanoscale

Large-Workspace Polyarticulated Micro-Structures Based-On Folded Silica for Tethered Nanorobotics

“…However, the state-of-the-art research is still limited to the use of folds to form a specific angle in a passive origami structure, and there is no experimental evidence that such structures are capable of continuous motion within the angular range allowed by their mechanical strength, while the high repeatability required for nanomanipulations, typically less than 1 µm [14], has not been verified in practice. To understand the suitability of such articulated structures for the development of nanorobotic applications, we still need to quantify the following aspect: Can such sub-100 µm articulated structures based on FIB-SID joints perform reversible, highly repeatable continuous motion over large workspaces?…”

“…However, there are still substantial limitations due to the lack of dexterity and versatility in manipulation. That lead researchers to investigate another approach based on micro-and nanorobotics, The rapid development of micro-and nanoscale robotic devices [14] in recent years has demonstrated the great potential of this approach.…”

“…Further research and development is needed to achieve more advanced micro structures with experimentally measured large workspace and high repeatability to verify their feasibility of application to nanorobotics. Since the physics and chemistry of this scale are not completely understood, such work is of considerable practical difficulty [14], [15]. In the past decades, various attempts have been made to achieve such ultra-small-scale dexterous motion, here we cite some state-of-the-art research in Fig.…”