Donald Lab at Duke University
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Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS), Nanoscience, and Microrobotics: Micro Actuator and Micro Manipulation Systems

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A Steerable, Untethered, 250 x 60 µM MEMS Mobile Micro-Robot

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Igor Paprotny and Bruce Donald with 1,000x scale models of our micro-robots

The goal of this research is to build microsystems that can actively, accurately, and efficiently interact and change the physical world. While so far MEMS research has been biased more towards sensor technology, there are a large number of potential applications that require micro actuators. Important examples are techniques to efficiently move, sort, or mix small particles (e.g. cells in biotechnology applications); or micro positioning devices for inspection and assembly of complex micro systems (e.g. for display or amplifier arrays). Here is an article of general interest (PDF) on our work. Our research in this area also includes:

Untethered Microrobots and Microassembly

We use the term microrobot to denote mobile untethered MEMS robots with their dimensions strictly confined within a 1 mm3 cube. We have developed designs, theory and the results of fabrication and testing for a novel parallel microrobotic assembly scheme using muptiple stress-engineered MEMS microrobots. We have recently presented the results of experiments and testing of a first implementation of an untethered, multi-microrobotic system. We fabricated and tested 15 microrobots, and used these devices to implement a new type of planar microassembly.

Micromanipulation with biomimetic cilia arrays »

Single-crystal silicon actuator arrays »

We are also interested in applications and connections between MEMS and biotechnology, particularly Structural Molecular Biology/Drug design.

Controlling possibly thousands or millions of microactuators raises some fundamental computational problems. To tackle this challenge we have developed a theory of programmable force fields:

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