60 microns (one micron is one thousandth of a millimeter) is the size of the origami bird that you can see in the following video, and which has been prepared thanks to a new technique using new one-micron shape memory actuators that allow atomically thin two-dimensional materials to fold into 3D configurations.
A actuator It is a device capable of transforming hydraulic, pneumatic or electrical energy into the activation of a process in order to generate an effect on an automated process. It receives the order from a regulator or controller and based on it generates the order to activate a final control element.
A quick jolt of voltage
Piezoelectric actuators are those devices that produce movement (displacement) taking advantage of the physical phenomenon of piezoelectricity. The precise movement that results when an electric field is applied to the material is of great value for nanopositioning.
He self-folding origami bird The world's smallest has been created well with actuators that just a quick jolt of voltage, and once the material is bent, it maintains its shape even after the voltage is removed. The machines fold themselves quickly, in 100 milliseconds. They can also be flattened and retracted thousands of times. And they only need one volt to come to life.
According to Itai Cohen, lead author and professor of Physics:
We want to have robots that are microscopic but have brains on board. That means you need to have appendages that are driven by complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) transistors, basically a computer chip on a robot that is 100 microns on one side.
The team is currently working to integrate their shape memory actuators with circuitry to make walking robots with foldable legs.
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The news
This self-folding origami bird is only 60 microns and is the smallest in the world thanks to a new technique
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.