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microscopic robots?
a simple blob to a functional marvel
Happy Tuesday, folks!
Welcome to This Week in Engineering (formerly Engineer’s Espresso).
You’re probably wondering, who won last week?
Forgot the question?
Q: You've just been hired by FutureTech Inc. to design the next-gen E-Skin wearable. But there's a catch – you need to balance three key factors:
The winner is…
🥁 Shannon Jones 🥁
Here’s the response:
“Here's how I would do it: Much like shampoo is tweaked and sold to different consumer groups based on their need (volumizing, hydrating, clarifying, etc.), I would engineer it differently for different end uses.
Hiking/ backpacking/ outdoor endurance:
Healing speed: 4
Sensor Density: 2
Battery Life: 4
Bonus: Integrate into a cooling neck bandana to monitor stamina and heal the inevitable cuts
Monitoring patients in rehab/physical therapy:
Healing speed: 3
Sensor Density: 5
Battery Life: 2
Bonus: Wrist-wrap that constantly assesses muscle progress to tailor personalized therapy based on individual challenges
Deployed Soldiers:
Healing speed: 8
Sensor Density: 1
Battery Life: 1
Bonus: A single-use patch kit that heals skin in the field
This was fun!”
Want to get featured in the next edition?
Reply with the answer to today’s game 👀
A pile of robot hockey pucks that can suddenly melt like candle wax, then snap back into a solid structure strong enough to hold a textbook.
WHAAAT ARE YOU EVEN SAYING DUDE?
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and TU Dresden just built it - and they stole the blueprint from embryos.
Step 1: Steal Nature’s Playbook
Your body started as a squishy blob of cells. Then, like magic, those cells decided to become bones, skin, organs.
How? Rigidity transitions - they switch between fluid and solid states. Embryo cells literally “melt” like glass to reshape themselves.
The robot squad copies this:
⦁ Fluid mode: Bots wiggle around each other, flowing like water.
⦁ Solid mode: Lock together, stiff as a brick.
“Living tissues are the OG smart materials,” says Otger Campàs, a biophysicist who studies how embryos pull off this trick. “We’re just giving robots the same cheat codes.”
Step 2: Build Robot Cells That Push, Signal, and Stick
Each bot is a disk with:
⦁ Gear teeth: To shove neighbors around.
⦁ Light sensors: Polarized filters let them “see” which way to spin. Shine a light, and they all line up like a school of fish.
⦁ Magnets: Turn ’em on, and bots grip each other; turn ’em off, and they’re Teflon.
“You tell them ‘go left’ with light, and they just… do it,” says lead researcher Matthew Devlin. “It’s creepy how alive they feel.”
Step 3: Add Chaos (Seriously)
Here’s the secret: signal noise - random fluctuations in the bots’ pushing forces - is what makes them flow. Too orderly? They freeze up. Add chaos? They melt.
Bonus: The chaos cuts power use. Robots aren’t grinding gears 24/7 - they pulse, rest, pulse.
Why Is This Wild???????
This robo-swarm can:
⦁ Self-heal: Lose a bot? The rest ooze into the gap.
⦁ Manipulate objects: Flow around a thing, then harden to lift it.
⦁ Scale up: Simulated swarms of 100K bots? Check.
Right now, it’s 20 clunky pucks.
But shrink them to sand-grain size, and you’ve got Terminator 2 liquid metal vibes.
It’s a lab for:
⦁ Cracking biology’s secrets: How do cells really coordinate?
⦁ Active matter physics: What if concrete could fix its own cracks?
⦁ AI materials: Imagine a bridge that senses damage… then rearranges itself.
TL;DR: Scientists built robot goo that acts like embryo cells. It melts, heals, and could one day eat your job. Sleep tight!
Last game was a hit. Now onto another one.
As MorphoTech’s lead designer, your mission is to evolve a swarm of microscopic robots from a simple blob into a functional marvel - just like nature does with embryonic development.
How to Play
⦁ Start with 100 micro-bots
⦁ Guide them through five evolution stages
⦁ Make key decisions at each stage
⦁ See your swarm’s final form and function
Bonus Challenge: Based on your choices, describe a real-world use case for your micro-bot swarm.
The most creative and scientifically sound ideas will be featured in next week’s newsletter.
Example
Selections: 1B, 2A, 3C, 4B, 5C
Outcome: A swarm forming hollow, light-sensitive microspheres that attach to cancer cells and deliver targeted medication.
How will your blob evolve?
Manufacturing Engr - RTX
Turning bolts, breaking spirits - just another day at the factory.Electrical Engineer - Actalent
Keeping the circuits alive while slowly losing mine.Manufacturing Engineer - DSJ Global
Streamlining production, but can’t seem to streamline my life.
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Throw a job on me
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