Article published on shape-morphing micromachines
Researchers from the Laboratory for Mesoscopic Systems in D-MATL, the Multi-Scale Robotics Lab in D-MAVT and at the Paul Scherrer Institute have developed a micromachine incorporating arrays of nanomagnets that can perform different actions. First the magnetic configuration of the nanomagnets is programmed and then the various movements are controlled by magnetic fields.
Such machines, which are only a few tens of micrometres across, could be used, for example, in the human body to perform small operations. The researchers have now published their results in the scientific journal Nature.
Original Publication:
Nanomagnetic encoding of shape-morphing micromachines
J. Cui, T. Huang, Z. Luo, P. Testa, H. Gu, X. Chen, B. J. Nelson, L. J. Heyderman
external pageNature 575, 164–168 (2019)
external pagePSI Press Release (English)
external pagePSI Press Release (German)