Related papers: Chemical Power Variability among Microscopic Robot…
Microscopic robots in the bloodstream could obtain power from fuel cells using glucose and oxygen. Previous studies of small numbers of such robots operating near each other showed how robots compete with their neighbors for oxygen.…
The power available to microscopic robots (nanorobots) that oxidize bloodstream glucose while aggregated in circumferential rings on capillary walls is evaluated with a numerical model using axial symmetry and time-averaged release of…
Microscopic robots could perform tasks with high spatial precision, such as acting on precisely-targeted cells in biological tissues. Some tasks may benefit from robots that change shape, such as elongating to improve chemical gradient…
Current developments in molecular electronics, motors and chemical sensors could enable constructing large numbers of devices able to sense, compute and act in micron-scale environments. Such microscopic machines, of sizes comparable to…
Objects moving in fluids experience patterns of stress on their surfaces determined by their motion and the geometry of nearby boundaries. Fish and underwater robots can use these patterns for navigation. This paper extends this…
Microscopic robots could perform tasks with high spatial precision, such as acting in biological tissues on the scale of individual cells, provided they can reach precise locations. This paper evaluates the feasibility of in vivo locomotion…
Nanotechnology-based microscopic robots could provide accurate in vivo measurement of chemicals in the bloodstream for detailed biological research and as an aid to medical treatment. Quantitative performance estimates of such devices…
Objects moving in fluids experience patterns of stress on their surfaces determined by the geometry of nearby boundaries. Flows at low Reynolds number, as occur in microscopic vessels such as capillaries in biological tissues, have…
In robot swarms operating under highly restrictive sensing and communication constraints, individuals may need to use direct physical proximity to facilitate information exchange. However, in certain task-related scenarios, this requirement…
Mobile robots are often needed for long duration missions. These include search and rescue, sentry, repair, surveillance and entertainment. Current power supply technology limit walking and climbing robots from many such missions. Internal…
Biological functions in each animal cell depend on coordinated operations of a wide variety of molecular motors. Some of the these motors transport cargo to their respective destinations whereas some others are mobile workshops which…
The biologically-inspired swarm paradigm is being used to design self-organizing systems of locally interacting artificial agents. A major difficulty in designing swarms with desired characteristics is understanding the causal relation…
This paper presents an approach to externally influencing a team of robots by means of time-varying density functions. These density functions represent rough references for where the robots should be located. To this end, a continuous-time…
The microvascular networks in the body of vertebrates consist of the smallest vessels such as arterioles, capillaries, and venules. The flow of RBCs through these networks ensures the gas exchange in as well as the transport of nutrients to…
Catalytic engines can use hydrogen peroxide as a chemical fuel in order to drive motion at the microscale. The chemo-mechanical actuation is a complex mechanism based on the interrelation between catalytic reactions and…
Routinely navigating through an ever-changing and unsteady environment, and utilizing chemical energy, molecular motors transport the cell's crucial components, such as neurotransmitters and organelles. They generate force and pull cargo,…
The dynamics of flow within a material transport network is dependent upon the dynamics of its power source. Responding to a change of these dynamics is critical for the fitness of living flow networks, e.g. the animal vasculature, which…
This paper investigates efficient techniques to collect and concentrate an under-actuated particle swarm despite obstacles. Concentrating a swarm of particles is of critical importance in health-care for targeted drug delivery, where…
Communication among microscopic robots (nanorobots) can coordinate their activities for biomedical tasks. The feasibility of in vivo ultrasonic communication is evaluated for micron-size robots broadcasting into various types of tissues.…
Minimally invasive medical procedures, such as endovascular catheterization, have drastically reduced procedure time and associated complications. However, many regions inside the body, such as in the brain vasculature, still remain…