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Circular steering of gold–nickel–platinum micro-vehicle using singular off-center nanoengine

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Abstract

A circular steering propulsion mechanism is proposed to explore autonomous movement of a miniature micro-vehicle with singular off-center nanoengine. The micro-vehicle comprising of gold, nickel, and platinum is invented and synthesized by layer-by-layer deposition based on the micro-electro-mechanical systems technology. The self-steering propulsion of the gold–nickel–platinum micro-vehicle is characterized in deionized water at three different hydrogen peroxide concentrations. Experimental results demonstrate that the micro-vehicle autonomously propels forward circularly in either a clockwise or a counter-clockwise direction without any external control. This research sheds light on the exploration of the self-steering propulsion achieved by the micro-vehicle with singular off-center nanoengine.

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Acknowledgement

This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Education Tier 2 (Grant No: MOE2011-T2-2-156; ARC 18/12), Singapore. We gratefully acknowledged Mr. Pek and Mr. Nordin in Micromachines Lab, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Nanyang Technological University, for their kind help on the fabrication and SEM characterization of the micro-vehicles.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

    Liangxing Hu

  2. Department of Science and Math, Singapore University of Technology and Design, 8 Somapah Road, Singapore, 487372, Singapore

    Nan Wang

  3. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Micro and Nano Systems for Aerospace, School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, China

    Kai Tao

  4. School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Jianmin Miao

  5. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea

    Young-Jin Kim

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  1. Liangxing Hu
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  2. Nan Wang
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  3. Kai Tao
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  4. Jianmin Miao
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  5. Young-Jin Kim
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Correspondence to Liangxing Hu.

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Hu, L., Wang, N., Tao, K. et al. Circular steering of gold–nickel–platinum micro-vehicle using singular off-center nanoengine. Int J Intell Robot Appl 5, 79–88 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41315-020-00146-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41315-020-00146-z

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