Uninterrupted consistent network coverage has historically been, and still is, hard to achieve. Cellular and wireless networks come with particular limitations, offering fragmented connectivity and use across devices. Power efficiency makes this challenge even more difficult as devices require a continuously active connection.To solve this challenge, we set out to test LTE CAT-1 as a new solution.Our goal was to test continuous strong connectivity even in the remotest of areas where the technology infrastructure significantly lags behind the developed world and connectivity is low.&nbsp;The question we asked ourselves was, could we bridge this wide gap and provide reliable internet access even in the areas with the weakest connectivity infrastructure?Turns out, we could.Sodaq leads the world&nbsp;in low-power sensing and tracking. To tackle the connectivity challenge, we partnered&nbsp;with Monogoto &ndash; a&nbsp;software-defined connectivity platform that offers cloud-based connectivity for next-gen devices.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img data-fr-image-pasted="true" src="https://monogoto.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/6Y3A0857-1024x683.jpg" alt="An Epic Quest to Validate Continuous Global Connectivity" width="800" height="534" srcset="https://monogoto.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/6Y3A0857-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://monogoto.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/6Y3A0857-300x200.jpg 300w, https://monogoto.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/6Y3A0857-768x512.jpg 768w, https://monogoto.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/6Y3A0857-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://monogoto.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/6Y3A0857-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" class="fr-fic fr-dii">&nbsp;Through this partnership, we live-tested multiple tracking devices across Europe and Africa. An airplane carried multiple SODAQ-manufactured devices with the NINA/LENA series of U-blox, powered by Monogoto connectivity. Each tracking device showed the route traveled and reported from each landing location.The journey covered 10 countries, beginning in Europe, following the Nile River through Egypt and Sudan, and continuing towards the east African coastal region of Tanzania before heading further south to Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and finally South Africa.&nbsp;Other technologies haven&rsquo;t solved it yetAt the Mobile World Congress 2018, it was highlighted that LTE-M and NB-IoT, both&nbsp;<a data-wpel-link="external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-power_wide-area_network" rel="external noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">low-power wide-area network</a> <a data-wpel-link="external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_communication" rel="external noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">radio communication</a> technologies for connected devices, could not solve the connectivity challenge in countries with limited IoT capabilities. It would take years to deploy these technologies due to the resource-intensive work required for roaming contracts with multiple providers. This may contribute to the reason why chip and module vendors have noted that sales of LPWAN modules did not meet original estimations.&nbsp;Testing a new way: LTE CAT-1LTE CAT-1 is a ubiquitous technology used by smartphones all over the world and we believed it could offer low-cost and low-power connectivity. CAT-1 technology has been in development for years and its potential to revolutionize global connectivity has been long anticipated. Devices with LTE (Long-Term Evolution) technology are capable of achieving higher data transfer speeds compared to older generations like 2G or 3G.&nbsp;Because it is compatible with older network technologies such as 2G and 3G, even countries with outdated infrastructure can leverage their existing 2G and 3G networks. Plus, the focus on wider coverage allows network providers to extend their services to remote or rural areas that may not have had access to cellular connectivity before.&nbsp;What we learnedWe learned that true global connectivity could be achieved.&nbsp;Our key takeaway is that CAT-1 is well positioned to provide continuous coverage even in the remotest of areas &ndash; it has the benefit of being highly efficient, and needing low power usage, without the downside of CAT-M or NB-IoT coverage limitations. Our partner Monogoto was able to provide that connectivity directly and we look forward to seeing what comes next of the partnership.

In today’s world, continuous connectivity sounds like an everyday given. But delivering it is far from simple.

An Epic Quest to Validate Continuous Global Connectivity

Imagine a robot small enough to fit on a U.S. penny. Or even small enough to rest on Lincoln&rsquo;s chest. It sounds preposterous enough. Now, imagine a robot small enough to rest on the chest of Lincoln &ndash; not the Lincoln whose head decorates the front side of the penny, but the even tinier version of him on the back.&nbsp;Before it was changed to a Union Shield, the tail side of pennies contained the Lincoln Memorial, including a miniscule representation of the seated Lincoln statue that rests inside. Barely visible to the naked eye, this miniature Lincoln is on the order of a few hundred micrometers wide. As incredible as it sounds, this is the scale of robots being built by Professor <a href="https://physics.cornell.edu/itai-cohen" target="_blank">Itai Cohen</a> and his lab at Cornell University. On February 22, Cohen shared several of his lab&rsquo;s cutting-edge technologies with an audience in Duke&rsquo;s Schiciano Auditorium.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1678193311226-IMG_4967-1-1024x1006.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Dr. Itai Cohen from Cornell University begins his presentation by demonstrating the scale of the microrobots being developed by his lab.&nbsp;To begin, Cohen describes the challenge of building robots as consisting of two distinct parts: the brain of the robot, and the brawn. The brain refers to the microchip, and the brawn refers to the &ldquo;legs,&rdquo; or actuating limbs of the robot. Between these two, the brain &ndash; believe it or not &ndash; is the easy part. As Cohen explains, &ldquo;fifty years of Moore&rsquo;s Law has solved this problem.&rdquo; (In 1965, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gordon-Moore" target="_blank">Gordon Moore</a> theorized that roughly every two years, the number of transistors able to fit on microchips will double, suggesting that computational progress will become exponentially more efficient over time.) We now possess the ability to create ridiculously small microcircuits that fit on the footprint of a few micrometers. The brawn, on the other hand, is a major challenge.&nbsp;This is where Cohen and his lab come in. Their idea was to use standard fabrication tools used by the semiconductor industry to build the chips, and then build the robot around the chip by folding&nbsp;the robot into the 3D shape they desired. Think origami, but at the microscopic scale.&nbsp;Like any good origami artist, the researchers at the Cohen lab recognized that it all starts with the paper. Using the unique tools at the <a href="https://www.cnf.cornell.edu/" target="_blank">Cornell Nanoscale Facility</a>, the Cohen team created the world&rsquo;s thinnest paper, including one made out of a single sheet of graphene. To clarify, that&rsquo;s a single atom thickness.Next, it came to the folding. &nbsp;As Cohen describes, there&rsquo;s really two main options. The first is to shrink down the origami artist to the microscopic level. He concedes that science doesn&rsquo;t know how to do that quite yet. Alas, the second strategy is to have the paper fold itself. (I will admit that as an uneducated listener, option number two sounds about as absurd as the first one.) Regardless, this turns out to be the more reasonable option.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1678193334884-microrobo-1.png" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Countless different iterations of microrobots can be fabricated using the origami folding technique.&nbsp;The basic process works like this: a seven nanometer thick platinum layer is coated on one side with an inert material. When put in a solution and voltage applied, ions that are dissociated in the solvent will absorb onto the platinum surface. When this happens, a stress is created that bends the device. Reversing the voltage drives away the ions and unbends the device. Applying stiff elements to certain regions restricts the bending to occur only in desired locations. Devices about the thickness of a hair diameter can be created (folded and unfolded) using this method. &nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1678193356157-microrobo-2.png" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">This microscopic origami duck developed by the Cohen Lab graced the covered of Science Robotics in March 2021.&nbsp;As incredible as this is, there is still one defect: it requires a wire to an external power source that attaches onto the device. To solve this problem, the Cohen lab uses photovoltaics (mini solar panels) that attach directly onto the device itself. When light is shined on the photovoltaic (via sunlight or lasers), it moves the limb. With this advance and some continuous tweaking, the Cohen lab was able to develop the world&rsquo;s smallest walking robot. &nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1678193376712-microrobo-4.png" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">At just 40 microns by 70 microns by 2 microns thick, the smallest walking microrobot in the world is able to fold itself up and walk off the page.&nbsp;The Cohen Lab also achieved &ldquo;BroBot&rdquo; &ndash; a microrobot that &ldquo;flexes his muscles&rdquo; when light is shined on the front photovoltaics and truly &ldquo;looks like he belongs on a beach somewhere.&rdquo;&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1678193402659-microrobo-3.png" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The &ldquo;BroBot,&rdquo; complete with &ldquo;chest hair,&rdquo; was one of the earlier versions of the robot that eventually was refined into the world record-winning microrobot.&nbsp;The Cohen Lab successfully eliminated the need for any external wire, but there was still more left to be desired. These robots, including &ldquo;BroBot&rdquo; and the Guinness World Record-winning microrobot, still required lasers to activate the limbs. In this sense, as Cohen explains, the robots were &ldquo;still just marionettes&rdquo; being controlled by &ldquo;strings&rdquo; in the form of laser pulses.To go beyond this, the Cohen Lab began working with a commercial foundry, <a href="https://www.xfab.com/" target="_blank">X-Fab</a>, to create microchips that would act as a brain that could coordinate the limb movements. In this way, the robots would be able to move on their own, without using lasers pointed at specific photovoltaics. Cohen describes this moment as &ldquo;cutting the strings on the marionette, and bringing Pinocchio to life.&rdquo;This is the final key step in the development of Ant Bot: a microrobot that moves all on its own. It uses a hexapod gate, meaning a tripod on each side. All that has to be done is placing the robot in sunlight, and the brain does the rest of the coordination.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1678193425045-microrobo-5.png" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">&ldquo;Ant Bot,&rdquo; one of the most advanced of all microrobots to come out of the Cohen Lab, is able to move autonomously, without the aid of lasers.&nbsp;The potential for these kinds of microrobots is nearly limitless. As Cohen emphasizes, the application for robots at the microscale is &ldquo;basically anything you can imagine doing at the macroscale.&rdquo; Cleaning surfaces, transporting cargo, building components. Perhaps conducting microsurgeries, or exploring new worlds that appear inaccessible. One particularly promising application is a robot that mimics that movement of cilia &ndash; the microscopic cellular hair responsible for countless locomotion and sensory functions in the body.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cilia-are-minuscule-wonders-and-scientists-are-finally-figuring-out-how-to-mimic-them/" target="_blank">A cilia-covered chip</a> could become the basis of new portable diagnostic devices, enabling field testing that would be much easier, cheaper, and more efficient.The researchers at the Cohen Lab envision a possible future where microscopic robots are used in swarms to restructure blood vessels, or probe large swathes of the human brain in a new form of healthcare based on quantum materials.&nbsp;Until now, few would have imagined that the ancient art of origami would predict and enable technology that could transform the future of medicine and accelerate the exploration of the universe.

Imagine a robot small enough to fit on a U.S. penny. Or even small enough to rest on Lincoln’s chest. It sounds preposterous enough. Now, imagine a robot small enough to rest on the chest of Lincoln – not the Lincoln whose head decorates the front side of the penny, but the even tinier version of him on the back. 

Origami Robots: How Technology Moves at the Micro Level

Imagine a world with precision medicine, where a swarm of microrobots delivers a payload of medicine directly to ailing cells. Or one where aerial or marine drones can collectively survey an area while exchanging minimal information about their location.One early step towards realizing such technologies is being able to simultaneously simulate swarming behaviors and synchronized timing &ndash; behaviors found in slime molds, sperm and fireflies, for example.In 2014, Cornell researchers first introduced a simple model of swarmalators &ndash; short for &lsquo;swarming oscillator&rsquo; &ndash; where particles self-organize to synchronize in both time and space. In the study, &quot;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36563-4" target="_blank">Diverse Behaviors in Non-uniform Chiral and Non-chiral Swarmalators</a>,&rdquo; which published Feb. 20 in the journal Nature Communications, they expanded this model to make it more useful for engineering microrobots, better understand existing, observed biological behaviors, and for theoreticians to experiment in this field.&ldquo;We wanted a simple mathematical model that can lay the foundation for swarmalators in general, something that captures all of the complex emergent phenomena we see in natural and engineered swarms,&rdquo; said Kirstin Petersen, the paper&rsquo;s senior author, assistant professor and an Aref and Manon Lahham Faculty Fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Cornell Engineering.Steven Ceron, Ph.D. &lsquo;22, a former graduate student in Petersen&rsquo;s lab, is the paper&rsquo;s first author, and Kevin O&rsquo;Keeffe Ph.D. &lsquo;17, a former graduate student in applied mathematics, is a co-author. &nbsp; &nbsp;O&rsquo;Keeffe compared this model to the largest doll in a set of Russian dolls, with each smaller doll representing models capable of simulating more refined behaviors. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve tried to come up with a model that is as simple as possible in the hope of capturing generic phenomena,&rdquo; he said.The researchers simplified their model to work with just four mathematical constants linked together to produce diverse emergent behaviors, such as aggregation, dispersion, vortices, traveling waves, and bouncing clusters.The new model can mimic particles in nature that each operate at different natural frequencies, as some objects move slower and faster around a trajectory than others. The researchers also added chirality, or the ability for a particle to move in a circle, because many examples in nature, such as sperm, swim in circles and in vortices. And particles in the model exhibit local coupling, so they sense and respond only to their local neighbors.At its core, the model combines swarming behaviors with synchronization in time. Examples of swarming from nature include flocking birds or herds of stampeding buffalo, where individuals move together as a group. Synchronized timing can be found in cardiac pacemaker cells that fire an electric impulse in unison, shocking the heart into regular repeated beats. Sperm represent both phenomena together, as they can beat their tails in unison while swimming as a group. Fireflies are also known to fly in swarms while flashing in synchrony.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what makes them swarmalators, because there&rsquo;s two of the self-organizing forces going on at the same time,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Keeffe said.The model doesn&#39;t try to model a specific real world swarmalator, such as sperm, robotic drones, or magnetic domain walls. Rather, it tries to model the behavior common to all those systems &shy;&ndash; it aims for generality, rather than specificity. As an example, the model was shown to reproduce behaviors found in microbial slime molds, which can operate as individual cells, but when starved will aggregate into a slug and eventually a fruiting body.&ldquo;These very simple coupled mechanisms can potentially be implemented on swarms of tiny robots with very limited power, computational and memory resources, which in spite of their individual simplicity can work together to produce the complex swarming behaviors we predict in our model,&rdquo; Petersen said.&nbsp;One future application could be for precision medicine, where tiny magnetized insoluble particles could swarm and be synchronized in relation to each other and then controlled to deliver a payload to tissues in need of a therapy, O&rsquo;Keeffe said.

Kirstin Petersen, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and colleagues, have developed a simple model called a swarmalator, where particles self-organize to synchronize in both time and space. Credit: Noël Heaney/Cornell University

Imagine a world with precision medicine, where a swarm of microrobots delivers a payload of medicine directly to ailing cells. Or one where aerial or marine drones can collectively survey an area while exchanging minimal information about their location.

'Swarmalators' better envision synchronized microbots

A new study led by <a href="https://mechse.illinois.edu/" id="isPasted" target="_blank">mechanical science and engineering</a> professor <a href="https://mechse.illinois.edu/people/profile/tawfick" target="_blank">Sameh Tawfick</a> demonstrates a series of click beetle-sized robots small enough to fit into tight spaces, powerful enough to maneuver over obstacles and fast enough to match an insect&rsquo;s rapid escape time.&nbsp;The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Princeton University have studied click beetle anatomy, mechanics and evolution over the past decade.&nbsp;<a href="https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/589930360" target="_blank">A 2020 study</a> found that snap buckling &ndash; the rapid release of elastic energy &ndash; of a coiled muscle within a click beetle&rsquo;s thorax is triggered to allow them to propel themselves in the air many times their body length, as a means of righting themselves if flipped onto their backs.&ldquo;One of the grand challenges of small-scale robotics is finding a design that is small, yet powerful enough to move around obstacles or quickly escape dangerous settings,&rdquo; Tawfick said.In the new study, Tawfick and his team used tiny <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aax7304" target="_blank">coiled actuators</a> &ndash; analogous to animal muscles &ndash; that pull on a beam-shaped mechanism, causing it to slowly buckle and store elastic energy until it is spontaneously released and amplified, propelling the robots upward.<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3udLRU9_qog?&wmode=opaque&rel=0&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" style="width: 765px; height: 509px;"></iframe>&ldquo;This process, called a dynamic buckling cascade, is simple compared to the anatomy of a click beetle,&rdquo; Tawfick said. &ldquo;However, simple is good in this case because it allows us to work and fabricate parts at this small scale.&rdquo;Guided by biological evolution and mathematical models, the team built and tested four device variations, landing on two configurations that can successfully jump without manual intervention.&ldquo;Moving forward, we do not have a set approach on the exact design of the next generation of these robots, but this study plants a seed in the evolution of this technology &ndash; a process similar to biologic evolution,&rdquo; Tawfick said.The team envisions these robots accessing tight spaces to help perform maintenance on large machines like turbines and jet engines, for example, by taking pictures to identify problems.&ldquo;We also imagine insect-scale robots being useful in modern agriculture,&rdquo; Tawfick said. &ldquo;Scientists and farmers currently use drones and rovers to monitor crops, but sometimes researchers need a sensor to touch a plant or to capture a photograph of a very small-scale feature. Insect-scale robots can do that.&rdquo;Researchers from the University of Birmingham, UK; Oxford University; and the University of Texas at Dallas also participated in this research.The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Toyota Research Institute North America, the National Science Foundation and The Royal Society supported this study.

Mechanical science and engineering professor Sameh Tawfick led a new study introducing click beetle-sized robots small enough to fit into tight spaces, powerful enough to maneuver over obstacles and fast enough to match an insect’s rapid escape time. Graphic by Michael Vincent

Researchers have made a significant leap forward in developing insect-sized jumping robots capable of performing tasks in the small spaces often found in mechanical, agricultural and search-and-rescue settings.  

Click beetle-inspired robots jump using elastic energy

First, they walked. Then, they saw the light. Now, miniature biological robots have gained a new trick: remote control.The hybrid &ldquo;eBiobots&rdquo; are the first to combine soft materials, living muscle and microelectronics, said researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University and collaborating institutions. They described their centimeter-scale biological machines in the journal Science Robotics.&ldquo;Integrating microelectronics allows the merger of the biological world and the electronics world, both with many advantages of their own, to now produce these electronic biobots and machines that could be useful for many medical, sensing and environmental applications in the future,&rdquo; said study co-leader <a href="https://bioengineering.illinois.edu/people/rbashir" target="_blank">Rashid Bashir</a>, an Illinois professor of <a href="https://bioengineering.illinois.edu/" target="_blank">bioengineering</a> and dean of the <a href="https://grainger.illinois.edu/" target="_blank">Grainger College of Engineering</a>.Bashir&rsquo;s group has pioneered the development of biobots, small biological robots powered by mouse muscle tissue grown on a soft 3D-printed polymer skeleton. They demonstrated walking biobots in 2012 and light-activated biobots in 2016. The light activation gave the researchers some control, but practical applications were limited by the question of how to deliver the light pulses to the biobots outside of a lab setting.The answer to that question came from Northwestern University professor <a href="https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/research-faculty/directory/profiles/rogers-john.html" target="_blank">John A. Rogers</a>, a pioneer in flexible bioelectronics, whose team helped integrate tiny wireless microelectronics and battery-free micro-LEDs. This allowed the researchers to remotely control the eBiobots.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1674080849362-210340.jpg" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Remote control steering allows the eBiobots to maneuver around obstacles, as shown in this composite image of a bipedal robot traversing a maze. Image courtesy of Yongdeok Kim<figcaption>&ldquo;This unusual combination of technology and biology opens up vast opportunities in creating self-healing, learning, evolving, communicating and self-organizing engineered systems. We feel that it&rsquo;s a very fertile ground for future research with specific potential applications in biomedicine and environmental monitoring,&rdquo; said Rogers, a professor of materials science and engineering, biomedical engineering and neurological surgery at Northwestern University and director of the Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics.</figcaption>To give the biobots the freedom of movement required for practical applications, the researchers set out to eliminate bulky batteries and tethering wires. &nbsp; The eBiobots use a receiver coil to harvest power and provide a regulated output voltage to power the micro-LEDs, said co-first author Zhengwei Li, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Houston.The researchers can send a wireless signal to the eBiobots that prompts the LEDs to pulse. The LEDs stimulate the light-sensitive engineered muscle to contract, moving the polymer legs so that the machines &ldquo;walk.&rdquo; The micro-LEDs are so targeted that they can activate specific portions of muscle, making the eBiobot turn in a desired direction.&nbsp;<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MI__Nm6EzvA?&wmode=opaque&rel=0&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe>The researchers used computational modeling to optimize the eBiobot design and component integration for robustness, speed and maneuverability. Illinois professor of mechanical sciences and engineering <a href="https://mechse.illinois.edu/people/profile/mgazzola" id="isPasted" target="_blank">Mattia Gazzola</a> led the simulation and design of the eBiobots. The iterative design and additive 3D printing of the scaffolds allowed for rapid cycles of experiments and performance improvement, said Gazzola and co-first author Xiaotian Zhang, a postdoctoral researcher in Gazzola&rsquo;s lab.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1674080946073-210347.jpg" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The eBiobots are the first wireless bio-hybrid machines, combining biological tissue, microelectronics and 3D-printed soft polymers. Image courtesy of Yongdeok KimThe design allows for possible future integration of additional microelectronics, such as chemical and biological sensors, or 3D-printed scaffold parts for functions like pushing or transporting things that the biobots encounter, said co-first author Youngdeok Kim, who completed the work as a graduate student at Illinois.The integration of electronic sensors or biological neurons would allow the eBiobots to sense and respond to toxins in the environment, biomarkers for disease and more possibilities, the researchers said.&ldquo;In developing a first-ever hybrid bioelectronic robot, we are opening the door for a new paradigm of applications for health care innovation, such as in-situ biopsies and analysis, minimum invasive surgery or even cancer detection within the human body,&rdquo; Li said.The National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health supported this work.

Remotely controlled miniature biological robots have many potential applications in medicine, sensing and environmental monitoring.   Image courtesy of Yongdeok Kim

The hybrid “eBiobots” are the first to combine soft materials, living muscle and microelectronics, said researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University and collaborating institutions. They described their centimeter-scale biological machines in the journal Science Robotics.

Microelectronics give researchers a remote control for biological robots

We are all familiar with robots equipped with moving arms. They stand in factory halls, perform mechanical work and can be programmed. A single robot can be used to carry out a variety of tasks.Until today, miniature systems that transport miniscule amounts of liquid through fine capillaries have had little association with such robots. Developed by researchers as an aid for laboratory analysis, such systems are known as microfluidics or lab-on-a-chip and generally make use of external pumps to move the liquid through the chips. To date, such systems have been difficult to automate, and the chips have had to be custom-designed and manufactured for each specific application.<h2>Ultrasound needle oscillations</h2>Scientists led by ETH Professor Daniel Ahmed are now combining conventional robotics and microfluidics. They have developed a device that uses ultrasound and can be attached to a robotic arm. It is suitable for performing a wide range of tasks in microrobotic and microfluidic applications and can also be used to automate such applications. The scientists have reported on this development in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34167-y" target="_blank">external pageNature Communicationscall_made</a>.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1673655246612-image.imageformat.lightbox.910456838.jpg" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">(Visualisations: ETH Zurich)&nbsp;The device comprises a thin, pointed glass needle and a piezoelectric transducer that causes the needle to oscillate. Similar transducers are used in loudspeakers, ultrasound imaging and professional dental cleaning equipment. The ETH researchers can vary the oscillation frequency of their glass needle. By dipping the needle into a liquid they create a three-dimensional pattern composed of multiple vortices. Since this pattern depends on the oscillation frequency, it can be controlled accordingly.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1673655273747-image.imageformat.fullwidthwidepage.718567062.jpg" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Various vortex patterns in liquids viewed from above and made visible by particles. The dot in the middle of each picture is the glass needle. (Photograph: ETH Zurich)&nbsp;The researchers were able to use this to demonstrate several applications. First, they were able to mix tiny droplets of highly viscous liquids. &ldquo;The more viscous liquids are, the more difficult it is to mix them,&rdquo; Professor Ahmed explains. &ldquo;However, our method succeeds in doing this because it allows us to not only create a single vortex, but to also efficiently mix the liquids using a complex three-dimensional pattern composed of multiple strong vortices.&rdquo;Second, the scientists were able to pump fluids through a mini-channel system by creating a specific pattern of vortices and placing the oscillating glass needle close to the channel wall.Third, they succeeded in using their robot-assisted acoustic device to trap fine particles present in the fluid. This works because a particle&rsquo;s size determines its reaction to the sound waves. Relatively large particles move towards the oscillating glass needle, where they accumulate. The researchers demonstrated how this method can capture not only inanimate particles but also fish embryos. They believe it should also be capable of capturing biological cells in the fluid. &ldquo;In the past, manipulating microscopic particles in three dimensions was always challenging. Our microrobotic arm makes it easy,&rdquo; Ahmed says.<blockquote>&#39;Mixing and pumping liquids and trapping particles &ndash; we can do it all with one device.&quot;- Daniel Ahmed</blockquote>&ldquo;Until now, advancements in large, conventional robotics and microfluidic applications have been made separately,&rdquo; Ahmed says. &ldquo;Our work helps to bring the two approaches together.&rdquo; As a result, future microfluidic systems could be designed similarly to today&rsquo;s robotic systems. An appropriately programmed single device would be able to handle a variety of tasks. &ldquo;Mixing and pumping liquids and trapping particles &ndash; we can do it all with one device,&rdquo; Ahmed says. This means tomorrow&rsquo;s microfluidic chips will no longer have to be custom-developed for each specific application. The researchers would next like to combine several glass needles to create even more complex vortex patterns in liquids.In addition to laboratory analysis, Ahmed can envisage other applications for microrobotic arms, such as sorting tiny objects. The arms could conceivably also be used in biotechnology as a way of introducing DNA into individual cells. It should ultimately be possible to employ them in additive manufacturing and 3D printing.<hr><h2 id="isPasted">Reference&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</h2>Durrer J, Agrawal P, Ozgul A, Neuhauss SCF, Nama N, Ahmed D: A robot-assisted acoustofluidic end effector. Nature Communications, 26. Oktober 2022, doi: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34167-y" target="_blank">external page10.1038/s41467-022-34167-ycall_made</a>

Using a glass needle made to oscillate with the assistance of ultrasound, liquids can be manipulated and particles can be trapped. (Photograph: ETH Zurich)

Until now, microscopic robotic systems have had to make do without arms. Now researchers at ETH Zurich have developed an ultrasonically actuated glass needle that can be attached to a robotic arm. This lets them pump and mix minuscule amounts of liquid and trap particles.

A precision arm for miniature robots

Understanding the biology behind an embryo&rsquo;s development is crucial not only from a basic science perspective, but also from a medical one. However, we are in dire need for tools that can help us systematically and explore embryonic development.&ldquo;The original experimental approach in embryology is microsurgery,&rdquo; says Andy Oates at EPFL&rsquo;s School of Life Sciences. &ldquo;But it used to be done with a very simple microscope and very simple tools like cactus spines or sharpened pieces of wire. Another problem is that we naturally have a tremor in our hands, which makes microsurgery difficult for some people. It takes years of training, and only some people can do it, so the throughput is very low.&rdquo;<h2>Combining robotics and biology</h2>In an effort to address the current limitations of microsurgery techniques, Oates joined forces with Professor Selman Sakar at the School of Engineering, an expert in microtechnology and small-scale robotics. &ldquo;<a href="https://www.epfl.ch/labs/microbs/" target="_blank">In my laboratory</a>, we have been building robotic tools for tissue micro-manipulation,&rdquo; says Sakar. &ldquo;Together with Andy [Oates], we asked whether we could use some of these tools to facilitate research in embryology in general, to make it more reliable and give it a higher throughput, and in this case to specifically understand the biomechanics of how tissue morphogenesis [the shaping and structuring of a developing tissue] in zebrafish works.&rdquo;The two professors received funding for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epfl.ch/schools/sv/iphd-program/" target="_blank">an iPhD</a>, a specialized doctoral fellowship at EPFL that combines life science research with another discipline. The iPhD candidate, Ece &Ouml;zel&ccedil;i, trained on both robotics and developmental biology.&ldquo;I think it&#39;s a great program, because, honestly, I would otherwise never have done such interdisciplinary research,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;It was quite intense; it&#39;s not like you only focus on a single discipline. I learned quite a lot from both fields, and I think it&#39;s a really great opportunity if you want to acquire a unique skill set.&rdquo;<blockquote>...our research enables us to reverse engineer the developmental programs for tissue engineering<footer>Selman Sakar</footer></blockquote><h2>A new robot-assisted platform</h2>Publishing in&nbsp;Nature Communications, the researchers describe the new platform&rsquo;s role as &ldquo;robot-assisted tissue micromanipulation&rdquo;. It is compact (200 x 100 x 70 mm3), high-resolution (4 nm position and 25 &mu;&deg; rotation), and dexterous, with several degrees of freedom. The tool can position itself automatically without any manual intervention and do so with high, reproducible stability.The researchers drew inspiration from related microsurgery systems from ophthalmology and neurology, which are also quite compact and precise, and also rely on microscopes, even though their target objects are often larger than an embryo.The scientists tested the platform&rsquo;s capabilities by using it to study body axis elongation of the zebrafish embryo. &ldquo;<a href="https://www.epfl.ch/labs/oateslab/" target="_blank">Our lab</a> focuses on how the backbone forms, and part of that is how the body elongates, grows out, and segments itself,&rdquo; says Oates. &ldquo;We use the zebrafish embryo as a model, and the idea is to look at the contribution of different parts of the embryo to the process of development. In this case, we look at how embryos elongate themselves and how they segment themselves, and how those two processes interact. Our approach is to physically separate elongation and segmentation by microsurgery, and see how each operates when the other process isn&rsquo;t there.&rdquo;<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tfQT2B6iJ58?&wmode=opaque&rel=0&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe>Using the platform, &Ouml;zel&ccedil;i and her colleagues were able to target precise regions of the zebrafish embryo. The robot-assisted microsurgery allowed them to remove the embryo&rsquo;s elongating tail and grow it separately &ndash; a process called explanting, which is often used in embryological research.<blockquote>Our approach is to physically separate elongation and segmentation by microsurgery, and see how each operates when the other process isn&rsquo;t there.<footer>Andy Oates</footer></blockquote>The study revealed a surprising behavior of the embryo&rsquo;s notochord, which acts as an early &ldquo;backbone&rdquo; for the larva when it begins to swim. &ldquo;The notochord pushes so hard inside the tail that it can buckle itself,&rdquo; says Oates. &ldquo;Normally the embryo would elongate uniaxially, but once we physically stopped the process, the notochord kept elongating, generating compressive stresses that led to buckling.&rdquo;<h2>Biology for advancing engineering &ndash; and vice-versa</h2>&ldquo;In addition to embryology, our research enables us to reverse engineer the developmental programs for tissue engineering,&rdquo; says Sakar. &ldquo;If we understand how forces lead to tissue morphogenesis, we could replicate these conditions with engineered tissues&nbsp;in vitro. Like biochemical factors, providing the right mechanical environment and signals is critical for the tissues to develop and function properly.&ldquo;We are also motivated to create biological machines that are designed to perform specific engineering tasks. For example, we would like to engineer mini-hearts that serve as organic pumps with much simpler architecture compared to the real heart. To this end, robot-assisted microsurgery provides not only the construction principles, but also provides the means to manufacture machines from the living matter through&nbsp;<a href="https://actu.epfl.ch/news/tissue-engineering-using-mechanobiology-and-roboti/" target="_blank">mechanically-guided self-assembly</a>.&rdquo;But will such platforms gain broader use? &ldquo;I envision that such robotic micromanipulation tools will become instrumental in every life science laboratory,&rdquo; says Sakar. &ldquo;Regardless of the chosen biological model system, ranging from single cells to organisms, robotics and automation can empower the scientists.&rdquo;&ldquo;Medical robots are quite advanced,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;It is time to bring the unique capabilities of surgical robotics to the biomedical research community. Handling biological samples in an automated fashion will increase the throughput, precision, and repeatability of data acquisition while democratizing procedures that require fine skills and years of experience. Combined with intelligent imaging and microscopy, the possibilities are endless.&rdquo;<hr>ReferencesEce &Ouml;zel&ccedil;i, Erik Mailand, Matthias Rüegg, Andrew C. Oates, Mahmut Selman Sakar. Deconstructing body axis morphogenesis in zebrafish embryos using robot-assisted tissue micromanipulation. Nature Communications 24 December 2022. DOI:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35632-4" rel="noopener" target="_blank">10.1038/s41467-022-35632-4</a>

Combining biology and robotics, scientists at EPFL have built a robotic microsurgery platform that can perform high-precision, micrometer-resolution dissections to advance our understanding of how the vertebrate body forms during embryonic development.

A robotic microsurgeon reveals how embryos grow

A collaborative effort has installed electronic &ldquo;brains&rdquo; on solar-powered robots that are 100 to 250 micrometers in size &ndash; smaller than an ant&rsquo;s head &ndash; so that they can walk autonomously without&nbsp;being externally controlled.<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bCjnekohBAY?&wmode=opaque&rel=0&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" style="width: 768px; height: 435px;"></iframe>Cornell researchers installed electronic &ldquo;brains&rdquo; on solar-powered robots that are 100 to 250 micrometers in size, so the tiny bots can walk autonomously without being externally controlled. No&euml;l Heaney/Cornell University&nbsp;While Cornell researchers and others have previously developed microscopic machines that can crawl, swim, <a href="https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/08/laser-jolts-microscopic-electronic-robots-motion" target="_blank">walk</a> and fold themselves up, there were always &ldquo;strings&rdquo; attached; to generate motion, wires were used to provide electrical current or laser beams had to be focused directly onto specific locations on the robots.&nbsp;&ldquo;Before, we literally had to manipulate these &lsquo;strings&rsquo; in order to get any kind of response from the robot,&rdquo; said <a href="http://physics.cornell.edu/itai-cohen" target="_blank">Itai Cohen</a>, professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences. &ldquo;But now that we have these brains on board, it&rsquo;s like taking the strings off the marionette. It&rsquo;s like when&nbsp;Pinocchio&nbsp;gains consciousness.&rdquo;The innovation sets the stage for a new generation of microscopic devices that can track bacteria, sniff out chemicals, destroy pollutants, conduct microsurgery and scrub the plaque out of arteries.The team&rsquo;s paper, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.abq2296" target="_blank">Microscopic Robots with Onboard Digital Control</a>,&rdquo; published Sept. 21 in Science Robotics. The lead author is postdoctoral researcher Michael Reynolds, M.S. &lsquo;17, Ph.D. &lsquo;21.The project brought together researchers from the labs of Cohen, <a href="https://www.engineering.cornell.edu/faculty-directory/alyosha-christopher-molnar" target="_blank">Alyosha Molnar</a>, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering in Cornell Engineering; and <a href="https://physics.cornell.edu/paul-mceuen" target="_blank">Paul McEuen</a>, the John A. Newman Professor of Physical Science (A&amp;S), all co-senior authors on the paper.The &ldquo;brain&rdquo; in the new robots is a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) clock circuit that contains a thousand transistors, plus an array of diodes, resistors and capacitors. The integrated CMOS circuit generates a signal that produces a series of phase-shifted square wave frequencies that in turn set the gait of the robot. The robot legs are platinum-based actuators. Both the circuit and the legs are powered by photovoltaics.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1663949751084-cmos-sheet-a_0.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Alejandro Cortese, Ph.D. &rsquo;19 displays a silicon-on-insulator wafer that contains finished CMOS &ldquo;brains.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;In some sense, the electronics are very basic. This clock circuit is not a leap forward in the ability of circuits,&rdquo; Cohen said. &ldquo;But all of the electronics have to be designed to be very low power, so that we didn&rsquo;t have to put humungous photovoltaics to power the circuit.&rdquo;The low-power electronics were made possible by the&nbsp;<a href="https://molnargroup.ece.cornell.edu/" target="_blank">Molnar Group</a>&rsquo;s research. Former postdoctoral researcher Alejandro Cortese, Ph.D. &lsquo;19, worked with Reynolds and designed the CMOS brain, which was then built by a commercial foundry, XFAB.The finished circuits arrived on 8-inch silicon-on-insulator wafers. At 15 microns tall, each robot brain &ndash; essentially also the robot&rsquo;s body &ndash; was a &ldquo;mountain&rdquo; compared to the electronics that normally fit on a flat wafer, Reynolds said. He worked with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnf.cornell.edu/" target="_blank">Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility</a> (CNF) to develop an intricate process using 13 layers of photolithography to etch the brains loose into an aqueous solution and pattern the actuators to make the legs.&ldquo;One of the key parts that enables this is that we&rsquo;re using microscale actuators that can be controlled by low voltages and currents,&rdquo; said Cortese, who is CEO of OWiC Technologies, a company he founded with McEuen and Molnar to commercialize optical wireless integrated circuits for microsensors. &ldquo;This is really the first time that we showed that yes, you can integrate that directly into a CMOS process and have all of those legs be directly controlled by effectively one circuit.&rdquo;The team created three robots to demonstrate the CMOS integration: a two-legged Purcell bot, named in tribute to physicist Edward Purcell, who proposed a similarly simple model to explain the swimming motions of microorganisms; a more complicated six-legged antbot, which walks with an alternating tripod gait, like that of an insect; and a four-legged dogbot that can vary the speed with which it walks thanks to a modified circuit that receives commands via laser pulse.&ldquo;Eventually, the ability to communicate a command will allow us to give the robot instructions, and the internal brain will figure out how to carry them out,&rdquo; Cohen said. &ldquo;Then we&rsquo;re having a conversation with the robot. The robot might tell us something about its environment, and then we might react by telling it, &lsquo;OK, go over there and try to suss out what&rsquo;s happening.&rsquo;&rdquo;The new robots are approximately 10,000 times smaller than macroscale robots that feature onboard CMOS electronics, and they can walk at speeds faster than 10 micrometers per second.The fabrication process that Reynolds designed, basically customizing foundry-built electronics, has resulted in a platform that can enable other researchers to outfit microscopic robots with their own apps &ndash; from chemical detectors to photovoltaic &ldquo;eyes&rdquo; that help robots navigate by sensing changes in light.&ldquo;What this lets you imagine is really complex, highly functional microscopic robots that have a high degree of programmability, integrated with not only actuators, but also sensors,&rdquo; Reynolds said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re excited about the applications in medicine &ndash; something that could move around in tissue and identify good cells and kill bad cells &ndash; and in environmental remediation, like if you had a robot that knew how to break down pollutants or sense a dangerous chemical and get rid of it.&rdquo;In May, the team integrated their CMOS clock circuits into&nbsp;<a href="https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2022/05/artificial-cilia-could-someday-power-diagnostic-devices" target="_blank">artificial cilia</a> that were also built with platinum-based, electrically-powered actuators, to manipulate the movement of fluids.&ldquo;The real fun part is, just like we never really knew what the iPhone was going to be about until we sent it out into the world, what we&rsquo;re hoping is that now that we&rsquo;ve shown the recipe for linking CMOS electronics to robotic actuating limbs, we can unleash this and have people design low-power microchips that can do all sorts of things,&rdquo; Cohen said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the idea of sending it out into the ether and letting people&rsquo;s imaginations run wild.&rdquo;Co-authors include former postdoctoral researcher Marc Miskin; postdoctoral researchers Qingkun Liu and Sunwoo Lee; doctoral students Wei Wang, Samantha Norris; and Zhangqi (Jackie) Zheng &lsquo;24.

A collaborative effort has installed electronic “brains” on solar-powered robots that are 100 to 250 micrometers in size – smaller than an ant’s head – so that they can walk autonomously without being externally controlled.

Brains on board: Smart microrobots walk autonomously

Another fascinating month for robotics. Researchers are the highlight of the month. Through their work, we are pushing the boundaries of self-awareness, complex structure and even the limits of life and death.&nbsp;Spoooky indeed.&nbsp;Take a seat and join us in this quick review of robotics news.And don&#39;t forget that you can also share your story. We would love to feature it in our next blog. Just email us at <a href="mailto:robotics.community@canonical.com" target="_blank">robotics.community@canonical.com</a><ul><li>This blog has also been <a href="http://ubuntu.com/blog/the-state-of-robotics-august-2022?utm_source=wevolver&utm_medium=blog" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">posted in Ubuntu blogs</a>.&nbsp;</li></ul><h2 dir="ltr">Security for robotics</h2><h3 dir="ltr">Vulnerability in cute, smart Enabot Ebo Air robot found and fixed</h3>The <a href="https://na.enabot.com/ebo/AIR" target="_blank">Enabot Ebo Air</a> is a friendly smart home robot, designed to keep the family company. It allows you to interact with your family at home while you&rsquo;re away. It can take photos and videos as well as recognise faces, and you can steer it around the house via Wi-Fi. Recently, the security assessment firm Modux was asked to evaluate the security of the robot, and <a href="https://www.modux.co.uk/post/serious-security-issues-uncovered-with-the-enabot-smart-robot" target="_blank">found two important vulnerabilities</a>. Modux disclosed the issues to the manufacturer, who has since addressed the risks and released a fix.&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjYwNTU1ODQzODQ3LXRlc3QgMS53ZWJwIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The first issue found was the use of a shared password for the system administrator (root) account. The Enabot Ebo Air robot came pre-configured with a default system administrator password, which was weak and shared across all devices. An attacker could have used this to connect via SSH (secure shell), and gain full administrative permissions. The recommendation was to disable SSH functionality, which the manufacturer did.&nbsp;The second bug was a missing secure-delete functionality, which could potentially disclose information from the previous owner if the robot was resold. The robot did not effectively perform a secure deletion of data when a factory reset was initiated, leaving behind artefacts from previous uses of the device, including cleartext Wi-Fi passwords and session tokens from the previous owner. For this, the recommendation was to use a secure deletion functionality instead, overwriting all sensitive data multiple times.An attacker could have used these vulnerabilities to move the robot, access the camera, record video, speak through the microphone, among other tasks, effectively using it as a surveillance device. This event highlights the importance of security awareness and thorough testing, as robots continue to serve and accompany us more and more in our daily lives. <h2 dir="ltr">Amazon acquisition of iRobot - implications beyond data</h2>Every time Amazon launches or acquires a new company (especially one developing a device) the whole internet starts talking about the data and privacy implications. Yes, certainly data is important for Amazon. But that is not the whole story. Today I want to talk about the impact this acquisition has on investors and how this could boost the market.&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjYwNTU1ODg4NDM2LXRlc3QyLndlYnAiLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Funding a robotics venture is not easy. Between March 2020 and March 2021, robotics companies raised only 8% in capital compared to AI companies. AI-focused startups raised a total of $73.4 billion while robotics startups raised $6.3 billion. This is a paltry sum in comparison, especially when we saw an increasing need for robotics in several industries (due to COVID). &nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjYwNTU1OTA4ODQxLXRlc3QzLndlYnAiLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">There are many reasons behind this. One of those, and the most important one, is the increased risk perception from investors. Robotics development is expensive and takes time.&nbsp;But moves like Amazon&rsquo;s show something to investors: a profitable exit. Amazon will acquire iRobot for $61 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.7 billion. A success story is always needed to push investment, and this certainly makes one.&nbsp;This is not an isolated event. It comes after 2 years of really interesting acquisitions. Take <a href="https://www.zebra.com/gb/en/about-zebra/newsroom/press-releases/2021/zebra-technologies-to-acquire-fetch-robotics.html" target="_blank">Zebra&#39;s acquisition of Fetch</a>, or <a href="https://www.deere.com/en/news/all-news/2021aug5-bear-flag-robotics/" target="_blank">John Deere&#39;s acquisitions of ROS-based startups</a>. Investors are aware, now more than ever, that while the risk is high, the profit/ROI could be as well. Moves like <a href="https://ubuntu.com/blog/the-state-of-robotics-september-2021" target="_blank">Amazon launching Astro</a> create more incentives.&nbsp;Amazon&rsquo;s acquisition has various implications. Only time will tell whether this boosts the market, and how much.&nbsp;<h2 dir="ltr">Robotics awareness&nbsp;</h2>Robots are now able to learn a model of their entire body from scratch, without any human assistance. <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.abn1944" target="_blank">Researchers from Columbia University</a> developed a visual self-model using deep neural networks that allowed a robot to learn the relationship between its motor actions and the volume it occupied in its environment.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjYwNTU1OTM2ODEyLXRlc3QgNC53ZWJwIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The team found a way to visualise how the robot saw itself, finding a surprisingly accurate self-image. (<a href="https://www.hackster.io/news/columbia-university-researchers-gave-this-robot-arm-a-true-sense-of-self-cadeac6481a9" target="_blank">source</a>) The researchers placed a robotic arm inside a circle of five streaming video cameras. The video footage was fed to the network as the robot wiggled and contorted. This allowed it to learn exactly how its body moved in response to various motor commands.&nbsp;After about three hours, the robot learned the relationship between its motor actions and the volume it occupied in its environment. Much like an infant exploring itself for the first time in a hall of mirrors.&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjYwNTU1OTU2Njk5LXRlc3Q1LndlYnAiLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Robot inside a circle of five streaming video cameras This awareness allows the robot to plan motion, reach goals, and avoid obstacles in a variety of situations&mdash;another small but incredible step towards robots&rsquo; self-awareness. <h2 dir="ltr">Robotics and Smart textiles</h2><a href="https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/new-shape-shifting-material-can-move-robot" target="_blank">Researchers at the University of New South Wales</a> are also working on a special project. They developed a new class of smart textiles that can shape-shift and turn two-dimensional material into 3D structures. The material is constructed from tiny soft artificial muscles. These muscles are long silicone tubes that can change shape thanks to hydraulics.&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjYwNTU1OTc3MTkxLXRlc3Q2LndlYnAiLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The UNSW team&#39;s smart textile enables fabric reconfiguration which produces shape-morphing structures such as this butterfly and flower that can move using hydraulics. (<a href="https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/new-shape-shifting-material-can-move-robot" target="_blank">source</a>) The artificial muscles can be programmed to contract or expand into a variety of shapes depending on their initial structure. The smart textile can either be attached to existing passive material or yarn to create an active fabric.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjYwNTU2MDAwMzM2LXRlc3QgNy53ZWJwIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Structure of smart textile (<a href="https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/new-shape-shifting-material-can-move-robot" target="_blank">source</a>)&nbsp;&nbsp;<h2 dir="ltr">Spider gripper&nbsp;</h2>What&rsquo;s next is not fabric, but something from a sci-fi movie. <a href="https://news.rice.edu/news/2022/rice-engineers-get-grip-necrobotic-spiders" target="_blank">Rice University researchers</a> found a way to use dead spiders as robotic grippers. What started with a dead spider in a lab became a gripper; Necrobotics.&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjYwNTU2MDI3MDc0LXRlc3QgOC53ZWJwIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Functioning of the spider gripper (<a href="https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2022/07/necrobotic-spiders/" target="_blank">source</a>) If you haven&#39;t noticed yet, spiders&rsquo; legs curl up when they die. This is because spiders extend their legs with hydraulic pressure and when spiders die they lose this ability. Researchers tapped into the hydraulic infrastructure of dead spiders using a needle, and by pumping air, they extended the spider&rsquo;s legs. Releasing the pressure retracted the legs, allowing them to grab objects. <h2 dir="ltr">Congratulations to ROS Industrial&nbsp;for its 10-year anniversary</h2>Happy birthday <a href="https://rosindustrial.org/" target="_blank">ROS Industrial</a>! If you don&#39;t know it yet, ROS Industrial is an open source project that seeks to extend ROS and now ROS 2 to industrial hardware and applications.&nbsp;ROS Industrial identifies and prioritises capabilities for industrial robotics and automation to address current and future application problems. They also provide a wide range of user services, including technical support and training, to facilitate the continued adoption of ROS by the industry.<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-6yAk05et1Q?&wmode=opaque&rel=0&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-gtm-yt-inspected-12="true" id="26562603" title="ROS-Industrial 10 Year Anniversary Mash Up"></iframe> They help us all carry the flag of open source in the industrial and automation domain. For that, we are truly thankful and we&rsquo;re proud to be part of this community. &nbsp;<h2 dir="ltr" id="isPasted">Robot Makers - Chapter 3 - Register now!&nbsp;</h2>Did you miss the interview with Akara Robotics CEO Conor McGinn? Don&rsquo;t worry,<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O3X7MM1mx8" target="_blank">&nbsp;the video is now available on youtube</a>.&nbsp;And don&#39;t miss our <a href="https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/6793/555737?utm_source=Canonical&utm_medium=brighttalk&utm_campaign=555737?utm_source=wevolver&utm_medium=engage" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">upcoming interview with Russell Nickerson</a>, Engagement Liaison at MassRobotics. MassRobotics is a non-profit coworking space for robotics startups in Boston&#39;s Seaport, where Russell supports more than 60 residence startups.&nbsp;Based on his experience scaling robotics companies, Russell will share the dos and don&#39;ts of go-to-market strategy.&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjYxMTYwMTQ5MDQyLVtXZWJpbmFyXSBNYXNzUm9ib3RpY3MgUm9ib3QgTWFrZXJzIDIgKDIpLnBuZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" class="fr-fic fr-dii"><ul><li dir="ltr">Register now for <a href="https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/6793/555737?utm_source=Canonical&utm_medium=brighttalk&utm_campaign=555737?utm_source=wevolver&utm_medium=engage" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Chapter 3 of the Robot Maker series</a></li></ul><h2 dir="ltr">Open source robotics &ndash; white papers</h2>We recently published a whitepaper about the importance of<a href="https://ubuntu.com/engage/robot-operating-system-choice?utm_source=wevolver&utm_medium=engage" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;choosing the right OS for your robot</a>. Picking the right OS could make a big difference in factors like security, maintenance and infrastructure for deployment.&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjYwNTU2MDcxNzI2LXRlc3QgOS53ZWJwIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><ul><li>Review the implications and explore <a href="https://ubuntu.com/engage/robot-operating-system-choice?utm_source=wevolver&utm_medium=engage" id="isPasted" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">why so many developers chose Ubuntu</a>.&nbsp;</li></ul><h2 dir="ltr">Open source robotics &ndash; video news</h2>Another month, another video. More news, more applications, more robots! &nbsp;<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O29XoRFNc0k?&wmode=opaque&rel=0&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe> If you want us to feature your robotics application, just send us an email at <a data-fr-linked="true" href="mailto:robotics.community@canonical.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">robotics.community@canonical.com</a>.<ul><li dir="ltr">And don&#39;t forget to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/UbuntuOS/?sub_confirmation=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">follow us for more robotics news, demos and tutorials!</a>&nbsp;</li></ul><h2 dir="ltr">Open-source robotics &ndash; ROS 2 shared memory tutorial</h2>After receiving questions regarding an error message issued by ROS 2 applications in snaps, we decided to put together a blog post on this matter <a href="https://ubuntu.com/blog/how-to-use-ros-2-shared-memory-in-snaps?utm_source=wevolver&utm_medium=blog" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&ldquo;How to use ROS 2 shared memory in snaps&rdquo;</a><img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjYwNTU2MDkzNDI3LXRlc3QgMTAud2VicCIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><a href="https://ubuntu.com/blog/how-to-use-ros-2-shared-memory-in-snaps?utm_source=wevolver&utm_medium=blog" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">In this post</a>, we review the shared memory mechanism in ROS 2, explain why the shared memory feature causes error messages in snaps and propose different solutions to tackle it.As usual, we&rsquo;d love to get your feedback. Feel free to reach out on the <a href="https://forum.snapcraft.io/" target="_blank">snapcraft forum</a>.<h2 dir="ltr">Stay tuned for more robotics news</h2>As always, we would love to hear from you. Send a summary of your robotics innovation and project to <a href="mailto:robotics.community@canonical.com" target="_blank">robotics.community@canonical.com</a>, and we will share it in our next robotics newsletter or monthly video. Thanks for reading!

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