Colloidal Robotics

Yong Dou

Colloidal robots refer to the colloid scale (from nm to μm) machines capable of carrying out programmed actions for complex tasks automatically. Because of its promising application in engineering and medical service, colloidal robotics have been of much recent research interest in both theoretical and technological relevance. However, there remain many open challenges on increasing actuation efficiency, achieving high level tasks (e.g., autonomous navigation), etc. This dissertation, in general, focuses on developing new actuation mechanisms and designing autonomous navigation strategies for colloidal robots with both experimental and computational efforts. Firstly, the motivation, background and recent research advances on colloidal robots are reviewed. In Chapter 2, a high-efficiency actuation method called contact charge electrophoresis(CCEP) is introduced to propel the dielectric...