NanoSoccer
18 June 2008, 11:15
Categories: NEMS--MEMS molecular-machines--devices
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If you love soccer but don’t want to wait until the next World Cup to satisfy your appetite for the most popular game on Earth, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has the answer—though the nourishment comes in very small bites.
Nanosoccer — the Lilliputian competition where computer-driven nanobots the size of dust mites challenge one another on fields no bigger than a grain of rice — will celebrate its first birthday this summer, and NIST is marking the anniversary with a new web site. Highlighting the site is a link to the recently produced video, “Bend It Like NIST: Tiny Soccer Players Pave Way for Microbots,” a two-minute program that demonstrates how nanosoccer tests agility, maneuverability, response to computer control, and the ability to move objects—all skills that future miniaturized robot workers will need for tasks such as microsurgery within the human body or the manufacturing of atom-sized components for microscopic electronic devices.
The soccer nanobots are operated by remote control under an optical microscope. They move in response to changing magnetic fields or electrical signals transmitted across the microchip arena. Although the bots are a few tens of micrometers to a few hundred micrometers long, they are considered “nanoscale” because their masses range from a few nanograms to a few hundred nanograms. They are manufactured from materials such as aluminum, nickel, gold, silicon and chromium.
Posted by: The Editors
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