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Research

Untethered micro/nanorobots

Untethered micro/nanorobots cannot possess internal batteries due to their volume. In order to power them, chemical energy [1,2] and external energies, such as magnetic energy [3],  light energy [4], and ultrasound, are employed. However, non of them meets all demands of high controllability, manipulation depth, and  good safety for bio-medical applications. Our group aims to find new method and designs of small-scale robots that tackle such bottlenecks, and further realize various applications in complex environment.   

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[References]

  1. Fernandez-Barcia, M. et al., Appl. Mater. Today 2020, 10, 100629.

  2. Jang, B. et al., ACS Nano 2016, 10 (11), 9983- 9991.

  3. Jang, B. et al.,  ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2019, 11 (3), 3214-3223.

  4. Jang, B. et al., ACS Nano 2017, 11 (6), 6146-6154.

Soft-robots

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The Uniqueness of soft-robots comes from the unlimited DOF, which permits a full adaptability to the changes in surrounding environments. In different perspective, however, the high DOF inevitably leads to the non-linearity in motion. This may not be always generous when developing a locomotive soft-robots. Our group aims to develop soft-robots inspired by nature, such as animals and bacterias. For example, a multi-link nanorobot was developed, being inspired by sperm cells. Similar to the characteristics of the sperm cells, the soft-nanobot also shows multi-modal locomotion and multi-functionality under applied external magnetic field. In addition, other types of soft-robots, such as pneumatic soft-robots, are currently under development. 

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[References]

  1. Wu,  J. et al., Adv. Science,2021, 8 (8), 2004458

  2. Jang, B. et al., IROS, 2018, 6193-6198.

  3. Jang, B. et al., Nano Lett. 2015, 15 (7), 4829-33.

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Tactile sensors

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Human skins or animal skins are the best model for the tactile sensors. BRL aims to develop a sensitive tactile sensors  by mimicking tactile mechanoreceptors. The smart skin can be not only used as an end effector  in robotics, but also to help patients who suffers from the malfunction of the tactile function. 

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