Imagine this: when environmental factors such as temperature and pH change, a small soft material seems to come alive with consciousness and thought, constantly changing its shape and performing logical operations… Such a micro soft robot with logical computing capabilities, without needing a chip as a “brain,” is expected to provide more possibilities for soft robotics and other fields.
However, traditional robots rely on electronic chips and numerous mechanical components to perform logical operation analysis and intelligent control. How to integrate these complicated devices into millimeter or even micrometer-sized micro soft robots is a huge challenge for researchers.
In response, Dr. Zhang Xuan and Professor Kong Jie from the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Northwestern Polytechnical University proposed to construct logic gates using environmentally responsive materials, integrating logical computing capabilities into micro soft grippers, achieving intelligent control of micro soft grippers in response to environmental stimuli. The related research results were published in the flagship journal of materials of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Materials Horizons, under the title “Small-scale Soft Grippers with Environmentally Responsive Logic Gates” (2022, 9, 1431-1439, paper link: https://doi.org/10.1039/D2MH00097K).
In past communications, we have introduced environmentally responsive polymers in detail:
They made materials “live”
In this research achievement, a type of environmentally responsive hydrogel material that reacts to various environmental signals (such as temperature, pH, ions, DNA, light, electric fields, magnetic fields, etc.) was used. The responsive hydrogel material was used as a building block, with a preset specific shape as input information, and the bending of the hydrogel after environmental stimulus as output information, forming a simple logical operation unit (logic gate). Through the superposition and combination of logic gates, the responsive hydrogel material can achieve operational functions similar to the working logic of electronic chips, thereby achieving intelligent control. Since the constructed micro soft robots typically exhibit unfolding-bending as their main shape performance, bending resembles a tiny “hand,” they are also vividly referred to as “intelligent grippers”.
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Supplementary Card:
Logic Gate: The basic component of various electronic chips, a circuit that performs logical operations, it is the basic unit of digital logic circuits. The combination of logic gates can achieve any complex logical operation. Such micro intelligent grippers have strong flexibility in design, capable of autonomously and freely combining operations based on specific environmental changes (such as temperature changes due to inflammation, environmental changes caused by bacterial infections, etc.), achieving complex intelligent control, and are expected to capture, grasp, and crush lesions autonomously.
Micro soft robots may be used in confined environments (such as the human body) in the future, such as:
Biopsy: Micro soft robots can become tiny “surgeons,” small and unrestrained, able to reach body areas that are difficult to access with ordinary surgical tools. They can autonomously penetrate or recover cell tissues, collecting tissue samples and bacteria. With their help, the invasiveness of surgery can be reduced, tissue damage minimized, thus lowering infection risks and shortening recovery times.
Drug Controlled Release: Micro soft robots can transport drugs within the human body, controlling their release through environmental signals, helping to improve drug targeting.
Ultraminimally Invasive Thrombus Clearance: Tiny micro soft robots carrying thrombolytic drugs can be controlled by an external magnetic field to gather at specific thrombus sites, generating heat and force fields while releasing agents, becoming efficient microvascular thrombus cleaners.
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that artificial intelligence is a strategic technology leading this round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, possessing a strong “leading goose” effect with spillover and driving capabilities. Micro soft robots made from environmentally responsive hydrogels are an important exploration at the intersection of chemistry, materials, and new artificial intelligence.
In the future, this research is expected to establish more complex chemical artificial intelligence systems, providing new ideas for the integrated development of micro soft robots.
Team Introduction:
Zhang Xuan, Associate Professor and Master’s Supervisor at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, graduated with a Ph.D. from the National University of Singapore in 2018. He mainly engages in research on intelligent hydrogel materials, hydrogel micro robots, and 3D printed smart resins, having published 10 papers as the first or corresponding author in well-known journals such as Adv. Mater., and led 7 national and provincial-level research projects.
Kong Jie, Professor and Ph.D. Supervisor at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, selected for national talent projects, and a highly cited scientist in 2021. He mainly engages in research on the design and synthesis of hyperbranched polymers and their application in electromagnetic functional materials, leading 10 national projects and publishing over 150 papers as the first or corresponding author in journals such as Nat. Commun. and Macromolecules, and has received 4 provincial-level and above scientific and technological awards.
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