Tiny Robots

[Yithian]

Tiny robot walker made from DNA

Scientists have created a microscopic walking robot using only the building blocks of life: DNA.

The tiny walker is only 10 nanometres long and has been described as a major step forward in nanotechnology.

A New York University team created the robot using DNA legs that move along a footpath, which is also based on DNA.

The legs move by detaching themselves from the footpath, moving along it and then reattaching themselves, New Scientist reports.

DNA is an ideal material to build the robot from, because DNA chains easily pair up.

By re-ordering the sequence of base pairs that make up the DNA strand, the scientists were able to control where each strand attached.

"What we've done is to build a sidewalk to accommodate one step and we've demonstrated quantitatively that [the robot] can take a second step," Professor Nadrian Seeman of New York University told BBC News Online.

Leg work

Each leg of the biped is made from two strands of DNA paired up as a double helix. These legs are connected by flexible "linker" strands of DNA.

Each leg of the biped has a portion at its end which is single-stranded. The scientists refer to this as a foot, and it is available to pair up with a complementary DNA strand.

Likewise, each domain in the track has a single stranded region that can pair with a complementary strand. The single strands on the foot and footpath are designed so that they should not generally pair up.

The researchers have to add a strand, called a set strand, that is complementary to both to make the foot attach to the foothold.

To make the walker take a step, the researchers then add another DNA strand called an unset strand to release the foot.

After this, the released foot grabs another set strand and the process can be repeated.

The research has been published in the journal Nano Letters.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3690115.stm

 

[phi23]

I'd like to know how they can possibly tell, I bet it just looks like a small test tube of weird fluid...

Jim: "Hey John, we've got the PH reading back from the lab, it's 6.523146!!"

John: "Great, that means the robot has taken three steps !!"

 

[CygnusRex]

DNA robot takes its first steps

11:50 06 May 04

A microscopic biped with legs just 10 nanometres long and fashioned from fragments of DNA has taken its first steps.

The nanowalker is being hailed as a major breakthrough by nanotechnologists. The biped's inventors, chemists Nadrian Seeman and William Sherman of New York University, say that while many scientists have been trying to build nanoscale devices capable of bipedal motion, theirs is the first to succeed.

"It's an advance on everything that has gone before," says Bernard Yurke of Bell Labs in New Jersey, part of the team that made one of the best-known molecular machines to date: a pair of "tweezers" also constructed from DNA strands (New Scientist print edition, 12 August 2000). Like similar molecular-scale efforts, the tweezers' arms merely open and close: they can not move around.


One small step for DNA: How the nano-sized biped walks
But for nanoscale manufacturing to become a realistic prospect, mobile microscopic robots will be needed to assemble other nanomachines and move useful molecules and atoms around.


Pairing up


The New York team's biped can "walk" because its DNA-based legs are able to detach themselves from a DNA-based track, move along a bit, then reattach themselves.

Why DNA? Two reasons. First, unlike other polymers, DNA chains like to pair up. However, two DNA strands will only "zip" together if the sequences of bases in each strand complement each other in the right way - so by tweaking the sequences chemists get a high degree of control over where each strand attaches. Second, researchers hope that cells can one day be engineered to manufacture these DNA-based machines.

Each of the legs in the walker is 36 bases long and is made from two strands of DNA that pair up to form a double helix. At the top, a springy portion of each DNA strand runs across from the left leg to the right, linking them together. At the bottom, one of the two strands pokes out of the helix to serve as a sticky foot.

The track, or "footpath", the walker travels on is also made of DNA, and is designed so that unpaired sections of DNA strands stick up like spikes along its length. These act as footholds for the walker. The feet attach to the footholds via "anchor" strands of DNA that match up with the foot sequence at one end and with the foothold at the other.

Because the left and right foot/foothold sequences are unique, each requires a different anchor. So to make the walker take a step, a free piece of DNA called an unset strand is introduced to peel away one of the anchors (see graphic), releasing the foot.


Shuffling forward


The anchor has a handle at the top - a short length of the DNA strand which does not bind to the foot or foothold. The unset strand sticks to this handle and then binds with the anchor all the way down. The anchor comes away easily because it prefers to have partners for all its base pairs - including the sequence in the handle.

The free foot grabs a new anchor sequence, which latches onto the next foothold, stepping the foot forward. Repeating the procedure to move the back foot forward completes the walker's shuffle.

The walker takes its nanostroll in a bath of a liquid called a "nondenaturing buffer", which stops the DNA falling apart. To start with, millions of walkers and tracks are floating around freely in this liquid. Only when the researchers add the DNA anchors do the bipeds' feet fix onto the footpaths. Then the unset strands can be added to begin the walking process.

The researchers were able to confirm that the nanowalkers had taken their first steps by taking small samples of the solution after each DNA addition. By feeding the material through a gel which separates DNA molecules by size and shape, they confirmed where the feet were attached - it is the same technique that gives "DNA fingerprints" in forensics.

Persuading the walker to ferry a load, such as a metal atom, is the team's next challenge.

Journal reference: Nano Letters (DOI: 10.1021/n1049527q)

Original Story

 

[giantrobot1]

Tiny robots?

Meh!

 

[Philo_T]

"Tiny robots, in my veins
Make me happy, make me feel fine,
Tiny robots make me warm all over
With a feeling that I'm gonna Love you 'til the end of time." /Don Ho

Sorry, Yith, your title for this thread keeps making me think of Don Ho.

 

[Ermintruder]

Perhaps we, as a forum, should collectively-purchase one of these tiny robots...Cozmo, by Anki. And then we can have the fun of arguing over the visitation rights...

https://www.anki.com/en-gb/cozmo

Imagine if Wall-E had tank tracks and could fit in the palm of your hand. That’s Cozmo. And you’ll love him. Cozmo is a super-smart and utterly adorable tabletop rover who wants to play and be looked after. I was besotted with the crazy little droid from the moment he came to life and those little animated eyes started glancing around.

Apparently this beastie has been 'out on the streets' for more than a year, so there's a high chance that someone here has got one (proportionately-reduced by its £200 pricetag...hence my not-entirely unserious suggestion of a forum-shared robot)

 

[Swifty]

Perhaps we, as a forum, should collectively-purchase one of these tiny robots...Cozmo, by Anki. And then we can have the fun of arguing over the visitation rights...

https://www.anki.com/en-gb/cozmo

Apparently this beastie has been 'out on the streets' for more than a year, so there's a high chance that someone here has got one (proportionately-reduced by its £200 pricetag...hence my not-entirely unserious suggestion of a forum-shared robot)

HA .. he's awesome! .. I want one :droid:

 

[Ermintruder]

Aha.....Cozmo has recently been joined by Vector.....s/he/it look like a bit of a 'Darth Wall-e'

 

[Swifty]

Aha.....Cozmo has recently been joined by Vector.....s/he/it look like a bit of a 'Darth Wall-e'

I've just watched this other vid about Vector, he's going to cost about $250 and is (hopefully) being funded by kickstarter ..