Magnetic 'Micro-Robots' Could Lead to Tiny Automated Factories

Remember those old electric football games that used a vibrating tabletop surface to send teams of tiny NFL players scrambling around the field?

Well, researchers at SRI International are developing a super-miniaturized, high-tech variation on the theme in which tiny worker robots shimmy around a circuit board in a micro assembly plant. The 'bots are guided by magnets underneath the surface, and work in sync to assemble electronic parts and small mechanical systems.

The Diamagnetic Micro Manipulation (DM3) system uses magnets under the circuit board to guide the tick-sized robots in precise patterns. Because of their small mass, the bots can move very quickly and in the demo video below they appear to jump like fleas.

As with so many other things in life, cooperation is key. The circuit board is designed so that each tiny bot works in absolute synchronization with all the other bots — movements are precise down the the microsecond. The prototype system uses only a handful of microbots, but the idea is to scale the system up to employ thousands of mechanized blue-collar workers.

The DM3 concept is part of the DARPA Open Manufacturing program, which encourages lateral thinking in the manufacturing process. "Our vision is to enable an assembly head containing thousands of micro-robots to manufacture high-quality macro-scale products while providing millimeter-scale structural control,"

The system has several potential applications, according to SRI. These include non-silicon-based electronics, prototyping of high-quality parts and — rather ominously — "tissue manufacturing."

No word yet on the inevitable union issues, but it's only a matter of time before the mechanical proletariat learn about collective bargaining.

iWatch to Get LG-Made Flexible Display

The much-anticipated Apple iWatch may come with a flexible display manufactured by LG, a new report suggests.

According to Korean website Naver (and a translation via G for Games, LG will be the exclusive supplier for the iWatch's flexible display. This coincides with otherreports that surfaced in January, indicating LG would be a major player in developing displays for the connected smartwatch.

New ultrasound device may add in detecting risk for heart attack, stroke

.

Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have developed a new ultrasound device that could help identify arterial plaque that is at high risk of breaking off and causing heart attack or stroke.

At issue is the plaque that builds up in arteries as we age. Some types of plaque are deemed "vulnerable," meaning that they are more likely to detach from the artery wall and cause heart attack or stroke.

"Existing state-of-the-art technologies are capable of determining if plaque is present in the arteries, but can't tell whether it's vulnerable. And that makes it difficult to assess a patient's risk," says Dr. Paul Dayton, co-author of a paper on the new device and professor in the joint biomedical engineering department at NC State and Chapel Hill. "Our goal was to develop something that could effectively identify which plaques are vulnerable."

There are two ultrasound techniques that can help identify vulnerable plaques, but both depend on the use of contrast agents called "microbubbles."

The first technique is to identify "vasa vasorum" in arteries. These are clusters of small blood vessels that often infiltrate arterial plaque, and which are considered indicators that a plaque is vulnerable. When microbubbles are injected into an artery, they follow the flow of the blood. If vasa vasorum are present, the microbubbles will flow through these blood vessels as well, effectively highlighting them on ultrasound images.

The second technique is called molecular imaging, and relies on the use of "targeted" microbubbles. These microbubbles attach themselves to specific molecules that are more likely to be found in vulnerable plaques, making the plaques stand out on ultrasound images.

"The problem is that existing intravascular ultrasound technology does not do a very good job in detecting contrast agents," says Dr. Xiaoning Jiang, an NC State associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, an adjunct professor of biomedical engineering and co-author of the paper.

"So we've developed a dual-frequency intravascular ultrasound transducer which transmits and receives acoustic signals," Jiang says. "Operating on two frequencies allows us to do everything the existing intravascular ultrasound devices can do, but also makes it much easier for us to detect the contrast agents – or microbubbles – used for molecular imaging and vasa vasorum detection."

The prototype device has performed well in laboratory testing, but the researchers say they are continuing to optimize the technology. They hope to launch pre-clinical studies in the near future.