Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




ROBO SPACE
Tiny swimming bio-bots boldly go where no bot has swum before
by Liz Ahlberg for UI News
Champaign IL (SPX) Jan 22, 2014


Engineers developed the first tiny, synthetic machines that can swim by themselves, powered by beating heart cells. Image courtesy Alex Jerez Roman, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.

The alien world of aquatic micro-organisms just got new residents: synthetic self-propelled swimming bio-bots. A team of engineers has developed a class of tiny bio-hybrid machines that swim like sperm, the first synthetic structures that can traverse the viscous fluids of biological environments on their own.

Led by Taher Saif, the University of Illinois Gutgsell Professor of mechanical science and engineering, the team published its work in the journal Nature Communications.

"Micro-organisms have a whole world that we only glimpse through the microscope," Saif said. "This is the first time that an engineered system has reached this underworld."

The bio-bots are modeled after single-celled creatures with long tails called flagella - for example, sperm. The researchers begin by creating the body of the bio-bot from a flexible polymer. Then they culture heart cells near the junction of the head and the tail. The cells self-align and synchronize to beat together, sending a wave down the tail that propels the bio-bot forward.

This self-organization is a remarkable emergent phenomenon, Saif said, and how the cells communicate with each other on the flexible polymer tail is yet to be fully understood. But the cells must beat together, in the right direction, for the tail to move.

"It's the minimal amount of engineering - just a head and a wire," Saif said. "Then the cells come in, interact with the structure, and make it functional."

See an animation of the bio-bots in motion and a video of a free-swimming bot.

The team also built two-tailed bots, which they found can swim even faster. Multiple tails also opens up the possibility of navigation. The researchers envision future bots that could sense chemicals or light and navigate toward a target for medical or environmental applications.

"The long-term vision is simple," said Saif, who is also part of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the U. of I. "Could we make elementary structures and seed them with stem cells that would differentiate into smart structures to deliver drugs, perform minimally invasive surgery or target cancer?"

The swimming bio-bot project is part of a larger National Science Foundation-supported Science and Technology Center on Emergent Behaviors in Integrated Cellular Systems, which also produced the walking bio-bots developed at Illinois in 2012.

"The most intriguing aspect of this work is that it demonstrates the capability to use computational modeling in conjunction with biological design to optimize performance, or design entirely different types of swimming bio-bots," said center director Roger Kamm, a professor of biological and mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"This opens the field up to a tremendous diversity of possibilities. Truly an exciting advance."

.


Related Links
Mechanical Science And Engineering At University Of Illinois
All about the robots on Earth and beyond!






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








ROBO SPACE
From Crime Fighting to Methane Lakes: Designing Robots for Earth and Space
Cleveland OH (SPX) Jan 21, 2014
In a remote corner of the Cleveland Police Museum, a famous robot languished gathering dust. In its glory days, this robot was part of the fight in the 1970s against Mafia domination in Cleveland. As the bombing capital of the country at the time, the robot known as Leroy was a crime-fighting superstar, taking dozens of unexploded bombs away from neighborhood targets and depositing them in ... read more


ROBO SPACE
China's moon rover experiences abnormality

Yutu moon rover has 'abnormality': Xinhua

New results on the geologic characteristics of the Chang'e-3 exploration region

NASA Seeks Partnership Opportunities For Commercial Lunar Landers

ROBO SPACE
NASA Preparing for 2014 Comet Watch at Mars

NASA Receives Mars 2020 Rover Instrument Proposals for Evaluation

In the Eye of the Beholder

Opportunity at 10: New Findings from Old Rover

ROBO SPACE
British astronaut says space travel vital to survival of human race

NASA Launches Third Generation Communications Satellite

NASA launches communications satellite

At Your Service: Orion Service Module Complete

ROBO SPACE
Netizens extend blessings to troubled lunar rover

'Goodnight, humans': Says Yutu As The Sun Sets

Extra Time for Tiangong

Official: China's space policy open to world

ROBO SPACE
Russia plans three spacewalks from ISS in 2014 - Energia

Space Station 2024 Extension Expands Economic and Research Horizons

Space-raised flies show weakened immunity to fungus

Aging ISS a space lab of 'unlimited' opportunity

ROBO SPACE
Athena-Fidus receives its "kick" for Arianespace's upcoming Ariane 5 launch

45th Space Wing Supports NASA Launch

ILS Proton To Launch Yamal 601

Turkish Telecoms Satellite to Launch From Baikonur Feb. 15

ROBO SPACE
ALMA Discovers a Formation Site of a Giant Planetary System

Herschel Telescope Detects Water on Dwarf Planet

Bright star reveals new exoplanet

'Dwarf planet' in deep space has water

ROBO SPACE
MDA awarded key development work for exploration and communications

Raytheon secures first international customer for its F-16 RACR AESA radar

Swiss cheese crystal, or high-tech sponge?

Microwires as mobile phone sensors




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement