Scientists at North Carolina State University (NCSU) have created a magnetic “metasheet” that can move objects and liquids around without needing robot arms or grippers.
The device is essentially a sheet made of elastic polymer with magnetic microparticles embedded in it. A kirigami pattern of tessellating triangles is etched into it, which makes it more flexible to deform on demand.
The idea is that as a magnetic field is moved around from below the metasheet, different areas of it bubble up or down. If you want to create a dip, for instance, you can make that section of the magnetic field attractive to the magnetic particles in the material, while a hill can be made by making it repellent. It’s quick too, responding to changes in the magnetic field in as little as two milliseconds.
“You can actually cause the surface of the metasheet to move like a wave by controlling the direction of the magnetic field,” said Jie Yin, co-corresponding author of the study. “And adjusting the strength of the magnetic field determines how much the wave rise or fall.”
Using this mechanism, the metasheet can be remotely controlled to push items around by raising and lowering different areas. The team demonstrated it using a range of non-magnetic objects including small beads, a glass slide, a wooden plate, a leaf, and even water droplets with a superhydrophobic version of the material. In all cases, these could be rolled and pushed to a desired location through specific sequences of magnetic control.
The researchers say that the method is designed to help move objects that might be too fragile or the wrong shape for robot arms, grippers, claws and other systems to work with. The next steps are to scale the approach down, and the researchers also say that there might be other applications on the horizon.
“We’re also interested in how this approach could be used to create haptic technologies that may have applications in everything from gaming to accessibility devices,” said Yin.
The research was published in the journal Science Advances. Check out the metasheet in action in the video below.
Source: NCSU