Uploaded June 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Scientists researching at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart take a new approach in self-assembling not one but many different shaped micromachines only 40 to 50 micro meters in size – about half the diameter of a human hair. They proofed that programmable self-assembly of their micromachines is possible solely through the design and structure of the individual components: by making use of dielectrophoretic forces that evolve around the individual parts when exposed to an electric field. In this environment, the design and structure of the machine frames on the one hand and magnetic actuators on the other allow their controlled configuration, making the assembly programmable. The scientists’ ground-breaking research was published in Nature Materials on 24th June 2019 with the title Shape-encoded dynamic assembly of mobile micromachines.
Scientists researching at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart take a new approach in self-assembling not one but many different shaped micromachines only 40 to 50 micro meters in size – about half the diameter of a human hair. They proofed that programmable self-assembly of their micromachines is possible solely through the design and structure of the individual components: by making use of dielectrophoretic forces that evolve around the individual parts when exposed to an electric field. In this environment, the design and structure of the machine frames on the one hand and magnetic actuators on the other allow their controlled configuration, making the assembly programmable. The scientists’ ground-breaking research was published in Nature Materials on 24th June 2019 with the title Shape-encoded dynamic assembly of mobile micromachines.
