News | Physical Intelligence – Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

Physical Intelligence News 28-06-2018 A multifunctional, multiscale, reconfigurable surface Composite surface has features that can move microparticles, mix droplets, repel biofilms and more. Wendong Wang

Physical Intelligence News 22-06-2018 Smart Materials Engineer choses MPI-IS for his NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship Dr. Hamed Shahsavan receives a prestigious Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, the country´s federal funding agency for university-based research and student training in natural sciences and engineering. The smart materials engineer choses the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems for his research stay because of the state-of-the-art facilities provided there. Hamed Shahsavan Metin Sitti

Physical Intelligence News 17-05-2018 Research prize by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for Prof. Dr. David H. Gracias Sabbatical of the recipient will take place in the Physical Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart.

Physical Intelligence News 26-04-2018 Multifunctional bacterial microswimmer able to deliver cargo and destroy itself The untethered biohybrid microswimmer is able to transport and deliver cargo encapsulated into a guidable red blood cell, while an attached bacterium, one of the most efficient swimmers in nature, acts as a propeller to move it forward. Once it has reached its destination and delivered its cargo, the scientists can destroy the microswimmer using infrared light. Yunus Alapan Oncay Yasa Metin Sitti

Physical Intelligence News 12-03-2018 Yunus Alapan to attend the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings The postdoctoral researcher from the Physical Intelligence Department at the Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart is one of the 600 young scientists who is given the opportunity for a week of scientific exchange with the greatest minds in medical research. Yunus Alapan Metin Sitti

Physical Intelligence News 22-02-2018 Four Postdoc researchers join the Physical Intelligence Department thanks to a Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Each year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation grants approximately 500 fellowships to Postdoctoral Researchers of all nationalities and disciplines from abroad to continue their research in Germany. Four AvH fellows join the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart. Zoey Davidson Ville Liimatainen Utku Culha Metin Sitti Abdon Pena-Francesch

Physical Intelligence Award 01-02-2018 Abdon Pena-Francesch, Zoey Davidson, Ville Liimatainen, Xinghao Hu, Yubing Guo, and Utku Culha received the Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship.

Physical Intelligence News 25-01-2018 Millirobot with a talent for versatility of movement A magnetic drive allows a tiny untethered vehicle to walk, crawl, jump and swim through a complex environment Tiny robots need not fear obstacle courses in the future: Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have developed a minuscule, flexible robot that can master a variety of forms of movement. Its magnetic drive allows it to walk, crawl and roll through difficult terrain. Moreover, it can transport small loads and swim on and in liquids. In future, tiny robots moving in this way could transport medication specifically to where it is needed. Wenqi Hu Guo Zhan Lum Massimo Mastrangeli Metin Sitti

Physical Intelligence News 24-01-2018 Nature-inspired soft millirobot makes its way through enclosed spaces Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems invented a magnetically controlled soft robot only four millimeters in size, that can walk, crawl or roll through uneven terrain, carry cargo, climb onto the water surface, and even swim in it. The inspiration comes from soft-bodied beetle larvae and caterpillars, and even jellyfishes posed as biological models. One day, this small-scale robot may enable targeted drug delivery or minimally invasive surgery, the researchers hope. Its multiple locomotion capability in complex environments is so unique that science journal Nature will publish the researchers´ findings in its February edition. Metin Sitti Guo Zhan Lum Massimo Mastrangeli

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2018 Chang-Kyu Yoon joined Ewha Womans University as an assistant professor in S. Korea.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2018 David Gracias received the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel award from the Alexander von Humboldt foundation.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2018 Guo Zhan Lum joined Nanyang Technological University as an assistant professor in Singapore.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2018 Hakan Ceylan, Immihan Ceren Yasa and Metin Sitti received the Science as Art Award of the Materials Research Society (MRS) in the Fall Meeting, Boston, USA.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2018 Pelin Erkoç joined Bahcesehir University as an assistant professor in Turkey.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2018 Sinan Özgün Demir received the Ministry of Education PhD fellowship from Turkey.

Physical Intelligence News 11-07-2017 Mobile Microrobotics New book from Metin Sitti Progress in micro- and nano-scale science and technology has created a demand for new microsystems for high-impact applications in healthcare, biotechnology, manufacturing, and mobile sensor networks. The new robotics field of microrobotics has emerged to extend our interactions and explorations to sub-millimeter scales. This is the first textbook on micron-scale mobile robotics, introducing the fundamentals of design, analysis, fabrication, and control, and drawing on case studies of existing approaches. Metin Sitti

Physical Intelligence News 19-06-2017 Robotta insan hücresi Prof. Dr. Metin Sitti gives an interview on Milliyet.com.tr Describing the work that will create micro robot revolution in health Prof. Dr. Metin Sitti has said that the cyborg system in which human cells are transferred to robots is in the process of animal experimentation ... Metin Sitti

Physical Intelligence News 14-06-2017 A Colonoscopy Robot and Other Weird Biomedical Tech From IEEE's Biggest Robotics Conference Swallowable biopsy robot of doom Metin Sitti Mehmet Turan Donghoon Son

Physical Intelligence News 01-06-2017 Programmable self-assembly Scientists under the lead of Metin Sitti at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have recently constructed a material system that provides dynamic self-assembly. To be alive, biologically speaking, means to be able to breath, to eat, to drink, to grow, to age, and, perhaps, to move. Food is the energy source, and metabolism translates the stored chemical energy into biochemical energy to sustain live functions. The physical abstraction of this energy transduction by living organisms is extremely simple: it involves energy input and energy dissipation. This mechanistic view of life looks almost trivial, but to apply this type of thinking in the design of materials and material systems is non-trivial. Scientists under the lead of Metin Sitti at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have recently constructed a material system that requires continuous magnetic energy input and viscous dissipation to maintain its spatiotemporal patterns, and the term usually used to describe this type of material system in the research community is dynamic self-assembly. Metin Sitti Wendong Wang

Physical Intelligence News 30-05-2017 Physicists discover why drying liquid crystal drops leave unusual 'coffee rings' Phys.org Penn alumnus Zoey Davidson, now a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany, had been experimenting with Sunset Yellow, a dye that gives Doritos and orange soft drinks their bright colors, when he accidentally spilled some of the material. Metin Sitti Zoey Davidson

Physical Intelligence Award 29-05-2017 Donghoon Son and Metin Sitti were the Best Medical Robotics Award Finalist in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Conference for the research paper entitled, “Magnetically Actuated Soft Capsule Endoscope for Fine-Needle Aspiration Biopsy”.

Physical Intelligence News 26-05-2017 Gecko-inspired multipurpose gripper An elastic membrane covered with tiny fibres paired with a pressure differential enables a new soft gripper system with a high adhesion performance even on curved surfaces Robots generally need a gripper that adapts to three-dimensional surfaces. Such a gripper needs to be soft to adapt to a great variety of geometries, but not too soft, as it will detach easily and not be able to bear weight for very long. Researchers working with Metin Sitti at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart developed a membrane equipped with microscopic fibres inspired by the fine hairs on a gecko's foot and attached it to a suction cup-like flexible body. An internal pressure differential ensures perfect conformation of the flexible gripper to a wide variety of surfaces and equally distributes the load over the entire contact interface. As a result, the researchers suppressed load induced stress concentrations at the edges, which strongly reduced the adhesion. The gripper demonstrates a 14-times higher adhesion than grippers without this load sharing mechanism. Metin Sitti Sukho Song Dirk Drotlef

Physical Intelligence News 22-05-2017 Functional Microrobots Could Harbor Bioengineering Apps HospiMedica.com A new study suggests that untethered micron-scale mobile robots can navigate and non-invasively perform specific tasks inside hard-to-reach body sites. Currently being designed, fabricated, and tested at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and Carnegie Mellon University, the first-generation microrobots will be able to deliver therapeutics and other cargo to targeted body sites, as well as to enclosed organ-on-a-chip microfluidic devices with live cells. A new two-step approach is use to provide the microrobotic devices with desirable functions. The first step uses three-dimensional (3D) laser lithography to crosslink light-responsive polymers. Metin Sitti Hakan Ceylan Immihan Ceren Yasa

Physical Intelligence News 18-05-2017 Bacteria-Driven Drug Delivery Carriers: A Paradigm Shift Advanced Science News Congrats to Babak, Oncay and Jiang that their paper, “Bioadhesive bacteria-driven microswimmers for targeted drug delivery in the urinary and gastrointestinal tracts”, is highlighted on their news website Metin Sitti Babak Mostaghaci Oncay Yasa Jiang Zhuang

Physical Intelligence News 16-05-2017 3D-microrobots voor minuscule chirurgie fpt-vimag.n Een kleine robot die door een eenvoudige medische injectie in het menselijk lichaam wordt gebracht en daar rechtstreeks en doelgericht een niet te opereren tumor bestrijdt. Dit klinkt misschien een beetje als science fiction, maar onderzoekers werken momenteel druk aan het moderniseren van de gezondheidszorg met behulp van bio-engineering. De uitdagingen zitten vooral in het ontwerp, productieproces en de codering van de microrobots die dit moeten gaan realiseren. Metin Sitti Hakan Ceylan Immihan Ceren Yasa

Physical Intelligence News 16-05-2017 Sticky gripper can lift flasks and tomatoes Nature.com A gecko-inspired adhesive could help robots to climb bumpy walls and grasp fragile objects. The hairs that make geckos’ feet sticky have inspired the invention of adhesives for flat surfaces, but creating strong adhesives that can grab complex, 3D objects has proved a challenge. Metin Sitti at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany, and his colleagues spread elastic microfibres, or ‘hairs’, across a soft, stretchy membrane, allowing it to mould and stick to a surface. The team attached this to a ‘gripper’ layer. Reducing the pressure inside the gripper spreads the load evenly across the sticky membrane, strengthening the bond between it and the target object. Changing the pressure in the system increased the membrane’s ‘stickiness’ 14-fold, allowing the device to suspend a variety of hard and soft objects, from fluid-filled flasks to tomatoes. Metin Sitti Sukho Song Dirk Drotlef

Physical Intelligence News 15-05-2017 Sciencemag.org Gecko-inspired gripper could help robots climb walls “The design of the backing is key to making these adhesives function properly for most applications, and this is a very exciting development.” The technology has several potential applications, says Metin Sitti, an author of the study and a mechanical engineer at the Max Planck Institute ... Metin Sitti Sukho Song Dirk Drotlef

Physical Intelligence News 11-05-2017 3D-Mikroroboter für minimal-invasive Chirurgie (Medizin Aspekte) medizin-aspekte.de Ein kleiner Roboter, der mühelos mittels Injektion in den menschlichen Körper gelangt, die gesunden Organe meidet und das Ziel – einen nicht operablen Tumor – findet und direkt behandelt… Klingt dies nicht nach Science-Fiction? Um es Wirklichkeit werden zu lassen, arbeiten immer mehr Forscher an der Vision, wesentliche Bereiche der Medizin und Biotechnologie zu revolutionieren. Das Design und die Herstellung solcher Mikroroboter, sowie auch die Ausstattung mit den entsprechenden Funktionalitäten, stellen jedoch noch große Herausforderungen dar. Metin Sitti Hakan Ceylan Immihan Ceren Yasa

Physical Intelligence News 05-05-2017 3D-Mikroroboter für minimal-invasive Chirurgie Innovations-report.de Wissenschaftler am Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme in Stuttgart haben einen Herstellungsprozess für Mikroroboter entwickelt. Diese könnten zukünftig miminal-invasiv schwer zugängliche Körperteile wie das Gehirn, das Rückenmark oder das Auge erreichen Ein kleiner Roboter, der mühelos mittels Injektion in den menschlichen Körper gelangt, die gesunden Organe meidet und das Ziel – einen nicht operablen Tumor – findet und direkt behandelt… Klingt dies nicht nach Science-Fiction? Metin Sitti Hakan Ceylan Immihan Ceren Yasa

Physical Intelligence News 03-05-2017 3D-Mikroroboter für minimal-invasive Chirurgie E-health-com.de Wissenschaftler am Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme in Stuttgart haben einen Herstellungsprozess für Mikroroboter entwickelt. Diese könnten zukünftig miminal-invasiv schwer zugängliche Körperteile wie das Gehirn, das Rückenmark oder das Auge erreiche. Metin Sitti Hakan Ceylan Immihan Ceren Yasa

Physical Intelligence News 03-05-2017 3D-Mikroroboter für minimal-invasive Chirurgie (NeoDoc) neodoc.de Wissenschaftler am Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme in Stuttgart haben einen Herstellungsprozess für Mikroroboter entwickelt. Diese könnten zukünftig miminal-invasiv schwer zugängliche Körperteile wie das Gehirn, das Rückenmark oder das Auge erreichen Metin Sitti Hakan Ceylan Immihan Ceren Yasa

Physical Intelligence News 03-05-2017 Kleinstroboter für größte OP-Erfolge unternehmen-heute.de Die moderne Medizin macht oft große Fortschritte im kleinen Maßstab. Am Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme in Stuttgart wird an Mikrorobotern geforscht, die Körperteile wie das Gehirn, das Rückenmark oder das Auge erreichen können. Metin Sitti Hakan Ceylan Immihan Ceren Yasa

Physical Intelligence News 22-02-2017 3D-microdevice for minimally invasive surgeries Scientists take challenge of developing functional microdevices for direct access to the brain, spinal cord, eye and other delicate parts of human body A tiny robot that gets into the human body through the simple medical injection and, passing healthy organs, finds and treats directly the goal – a non-operable tumor… Doesn’t it sound at least like science-fiction? To make it real, a growing number of researchers are now working towards this direction with the prospect of transforming many aspects of healthcare and bioengineering in the nearest future. What makes it not so easy are unique challenges pertaining to design, fabrication and encoding functionality in producing functional microdevices. Metin Sitti Hakan Ceylan Immihan Ceren Yasa

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2017 Ahmet Fatih Tabak joined Bahcesehir University as an assistant professor in Turkey.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2017 Byung-Wook Park joined Youngstown University as an assistant professor in USA.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2017 Hakan Ceylan received the Masoumeh Ghaderi Best Talk Prize at the 5th annual workshop on Micro and Nanotechnologies for medicine: Emerging Frontiers and Applications in Boston, USA.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2017 Hamed Shahsavan received the NSERC from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2017 Hunter Bryant Gilbert joined Louisiana State University as an assistant professor in USA.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2017 Massimo Mastrangeli joined Delft University of Technology as an assistant professor in Netherlands.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2017 Yubing Guo, Yunus Alapan, and Zoey Davidson received the Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship.

Physical Intelligence News 26-09-2016 Shape-programmable miniscule robots Soft materials that can use magnetic fields to generate desired time-varying shapes could provide an engine for microswimmers One day, microrobots may be able to swim through the human body like sperm or paramecia to carry out medical functions in specific locations. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have developed functional elastomers, which can be activated by magnetic fields to imitate the swimming gaits of natural flagella, cilia and jellyfish. Using a specially developed computer algorithm, the researchers can now automatically generate the optimal magnetic conditions for each gait for the first time. According to the Stuttgart-based scientists, other applications for this shape-programming technology include numerous other micro-scale engineering applications, in which chemical and physical processes are implemented on a miniscule scale. Metin Sitti Guo Zhan Lum

Physical Intelligence Award 15-06-2016 Yunus Alapan and Hunter Gilbert received the Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship.

Physical Intelligence News 18-05-2016 Switch and stick The chemical element gallium could be used as a new reversible adhesive that allows its adhesive effect to be switched on and off with ease Some adhesives may soon have a metallic sheen and be particularly easy to unstick. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart are suggesting gallium as just such a reversible adhesive. By inducing slight changes in temperature, they can control whether a layer of gallium sticks or not. This is based on the fact that gallium transitions from a solid state to a liquid state at around 30 degrees Celsius. A reversible adhesive of this kind could have applications everywhere that temporary adhesion is required, such as industrial pick-and-place processes, transfer printing, temporary wafer bonding, or for moving sensitive biological samples such as tissues and organs. Switchable adhesion could also be suitable for use on the feet of climbing robots. Metin Sitti Zhou Ye Guo Zhan Lum Sukho Song

Physical Intelligence News 13-03-2016 Gentle strength for robots A soft actuator using electrically controllable membranes could pave the way for machines that are no danger to humans In interacting with humans, robots must first and foremost be safe. If a household robot, for example, encounters a human, it should not continue its movements regardless, but rather give way in case of doubt. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart are now presenting a motion system - a so-called elastic actuator - that is compliant and can be integrated in robots thanks to its space-saving design. The actuator works with hyperelastic membranes that surround air-filled chambers. The volume of the chambers can be controlled by means of an electric field at the membrane. To date, elastic actuators that exert a force by stretching air-filled chambers have always required connection to pumps and compressors to work. A soft actuator such as the one developed by the Stuttgart-based team means that such bulky payloads or tethers may now be superfluous. Metin Sitti Lindsey Hines Kirstin Petersen

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2016 Alex Sprowitz joined Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems as an independent group leader in Stuttgart, Germany.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2016 Kirstin Petersen joined Cornell University as an assistant professor in USA.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2016 Wenqi Hu and Hunter Gilbert received the Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2016 Zeinab Hosseini joined McMaster University as an assistant professor in Canada.

Physical Intelligence Award 28-10-2015 Chantal Göttler: 1st Prize at the "Thesis in Three" Competition in the M.Sc. category.

Physical Intelligence News 04-09-2015 New adhesive mimics gecko biology thetartan.org It’s a typical afternoon at the zoo, and you find yourself looking at the exhibits of reptiles and amphibians in miniature imitations of wild and exotic habitats. At one of the displays you notice a gecko crawling on a window with superhero ease. Metin Sitti