Frontiers in Mechatronics ...

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Frontiers in Mechatronics ...
Dr. Jeff Hargrove - Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Kettering University
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Our Study of Mechatronics . . .

• Application of SENSORS and ACTUATOR technologies
• Microprocessors at the heart of it all
• Combined, the idea of smart and optimally
  functional machines are a reality

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Out on the Horizon . . .

• MicroSystems Technologies (MSTs)
• Nano-technologies
• A natural progression of mechatronics
• Historically electronics and mechanical devices
  have become smaller and smarter
  
• Mechatronics has given us insight into embedding
  microcontrollers into machines

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Example Current Research in Miniaturization

• Military reconnaissance - Micro Aerial Vehicles
  (MAVs)
  
• Tiny spy planes for small-area intelligence
• DoD launched 35 million-dollar program
• Goal devices utilized at the platoon / company /
  brigade level for immediate observation of local
  terrain

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Results . . .

• Black Widow - palm sized propeller craft
• Flies 16 minutes on lithium battery
• Performance goals
• Real-time imaging
• navigation
• communications

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But What If?

• Great capabilities with bird-sized planes
• But what if we could create a functional airplane
  that was the size of an insect?
  
• Would it be possible
• To fly undetected, land and generate on-going
  data?
  
• Fly to a target, land and launch micron-sized
  vehicles to seek out vulnerability and guide in
  missiles?
  
• Prevent inadvertent targeting of civilians or
  friendly troops

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What Stands in the Way?

• MICRON SIZED COMPONENTS!
• Here is the promise of research in
  microfabrication technologies
  
• Sensors, actuators and mechanical components that
  are sized at the micron level
  
• Parts that are on the order of the width of a
  human hair!
  
• For example, consider PROPULSION for the
  bug-sized plane . . . EXTREME CHALLENGES!

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SOLUTION Micron-Sized TURBINES

• Current technology - fabrication to about the
  size of a button
  
• Integrated with a generator to create 50 watts
• As a centrifugal compressor, creates 0.2 newtons
  of direct thrust

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But thats not all folks . . .

• Microturbines may be the precursor to
  micron-sized jet engines
  
• But in order to control flight, micron-sized
  actuators must exist
  
• The possibilities are not remote . . . they are
  upon us now!
  
• MEMS fabrication technologies allow devices only
  a few microns in size!

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A Sampling . . .
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Of course . . .

• Electronics and controls will be needed
• Other micro-mechatronic devices too
• Research today is driving electronics toward
  operation at the quantum level
  
• Today we talk about computers that operate by
  moving single atoms
  
• Speeds and computing densities beyond
  comprehension
  
• The age of nano-electronics is upon us!

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Significant for Mechanical / Mechatronics
Engineers

• Micron-sized devices weve seen so far came as a
  result of electronics industry fabricating
  technologies
  
• techniques for making semiconductors now make
  mechanical devices
  
• This motivates us to consider nano-machines . . .
  Devices created by moving single molecules or
  single atoms

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The Motivation for Nanotechnology

• Why create machines so small that an electron
  microscope would have to strain to see?
  
• One of the answers lies in biomedical engineering
  . . .

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Nanotechnology Robots

• Consider a nanotechnology robot with translatory
  mobility that could be implanted in a human body
  
• Add sensor technologies to distinguish cellular
  structures
  
• Add an actuator such as a laser that could
  vaporize or alter cells beneficially

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Natural TranslationIts Already Been Done!
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Nanotechnology Dreams . . .

• Could a robot be built that could move around in
  a cancerous tumor and selectively destroy it?
  
• Could a robot be built that would have the
  ability to grab single atoms and attach them to
  other atoms, literally building primordial
  molecules?
• Think of the possibilities!

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Consider a Diabetes Mellitus Patient

• Common form where patient has deficient ability
  to produce insulin
  
• Etiology of the failure is traced to the
  pancreas, and the beta cells of the islets of
  Langerhans
  
• Yet, insulin is an amino acid consisting of C, O,
  H, N and S atoms

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The Possibility . . .

• Create nano-robots that glean atoms from
  resources in the body and assemble insulin?
  
• Create nano-robots to be implanted directly into
  the pancreas and travel to the islets of
  Langerhans cells to stimulate them
  
• Create nano-robots that are literally capable of
  altering genes or DNA molecules to correct
  disease causing anomalies?

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The Reality Nano-Lasers!

• Bell Labs disk lasers with thickness 100 nm
• Highly efficient . . . little operating power
• Sandia National Labs bio-cavity laser senses
  abnormal cells

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Even more . . .

• UC Irvine Laser scissors and laser tweezers
• Trap, hold and operate on single cells
• Utilize piconewton forces natural to light energy