Fig. 3: Reversible, multiple, and robust assembly of magnetic ant microbots.
From: Femtosecond laser writing of ant-inspired reconfigurable microbot collectives
a Schematics of the 180° and 90° assembly processes of two ant microbots under the synergistic control of magnetic and light fields, respectively. b Time-sequence optical images show the 180° and 90° assembly and corresponding separation processes of two ant microbots under the synergistic control of magnetic and light fields, respectively. c Optical images show the versatile morphologies achieved by introducing units’ number and combining two assembly methods. d Schematic of the vibration test setup. The slide containing ant microbots is mounted on the vibration generator, where the first ant microbot is fixed on the slide and the other two are assembled sequentially by our proposed strategy. e,f the phase diagrams reveal I-shaped (e) and C-shaped (f) assembly stability of three ant microbots under different vibration parameters. The green dots represent that the assembled microstructures remain intact. The red cross symbols indicate that the assembled microstructures are destroyed.
