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Microbots Made of Bubbles Are Controlled By Lasers
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at the University of Hawaii have turned bubbles of gas into non-mechanical 'microbots' that they propel and steer with a laser. The laser heats up specific areas of the fluid that the bubble are in, and temperature gradients push the fluid towards the hot area, moving the bubble along. By using an array of lasers, the researchers can control the speed and direction of multiple bubble bots independently; this capability is not possible with other types of microbots, such as those controlled by a magnetic field, which affects all robots simultaneously. The University of Hawaii researchers hope their non-mechanical microbots can be used to assemble and manipulate microscopic structures, including live cells. In one experiment, they used the bubble bots to position 100-m-diameter glass beads to form the letters 'UH.'"
Sharks will have their own microbot armies.
Sharks with lasers?
Eventually, it may be possible to conjure swarms of microscopic bubble robots out of nothing, set them to work building microstructures with an array of thermal lasers, and then when they're finished, give each one a little pop to wipe it completely out of existence without any mess or fuss.
Take that you little SOBs. Kind of an interesting opportunity to use massively parallel processing though.
Moving 100m bubbles around with lasers. That's pretty impressive...
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
I think that a chunk of glass about 30 stories high can be called a "bead"... Losely... ;-)
Or, I think that letter \mu got lost while this story was flowing through ether, more likely!
Paul B.
Apparently browsers cannot handle the Greek mu for micron (maybe they can!). Anyway, isn't micron a deprecated unit? Nanometers nm are in, microns are out.
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
Nice results, but why allude to the bubbles as robots (microbots)?
...for one, welcome our new microbot bubble overlords.
if( fashion joke )
{
whoosh( Beardo );
}
else
{
nanometers = 10^-9;
micrometer = 10^-6;
micron = micrometer;
}
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Most. Badass. Article. Title. Ever.
I think I have an album for their youtube demo.
It appeared in the video that a single bubble was being manipulated by hand with a laser pointer. That's cool, but I was hoping to see perhaps a few hundred bubbles, with computer controlled precision scattering of the laser. Each bubble would be maneuvered in a very precise, computer controlled manner and the bubbles collaborating to perform specific functions. Is this the next step?
So why not say 0.1mm, using a unit familiar to the audience and discernable on a standard ruler?
Instead they said 100 metres, which are sodding big balls.
Don Ho is SO mad right now. I smell a lawsuit coming.
I want one for my swiming pool.
I wonder how long before advertisers start putting Red bull logos in the surf?
b/c a micron is a thousandth, not a tenth, of a mm
How can they call that robots when they'r not even automated? It looks like a simple disc being dragged/pushed by a laser through resistance on its center.
This looks like a tech that could be used to run a proper volumetric display. If you used glass beads of different colours, or found a way to make them fluoresce (perhaps by energizing an internal gas, or phosphor coating, or something?), you might be able to come up with something a fair bit more impressive than just "UM".
A real volumetric display would certainly have a lot of applications. I'm sure the military would love it for battlefield visualisations, etc.
The big question is can these bubble bots be used to keep number 8 in the village and prevent him from escaping?
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
Scientist A: "Hey, we can move bubbles with lasers."
Scientist B: "That's pretty boring. But robotics is hot. Maybe we can get press coverage if we call the 'bubbles' 'robots'."