Robotic Trajectories and Morphology Manipulation of Single Particle and Granular Materials by a Vibration Tweezer

Abstract

Robotic self-assembly of deformable materials holds potential for the automatic construction of complex robots. Current manipulation for deformable manipulation mainly focuses on a soft robot. It still remains a great challenge for morphology manipulation of a swarm of particles. Chladni patterns have raised great interest in the field of self-assembly for different materials. The formation of Chladni patterns is driven by the vibration process that involves the particles moving from disorder to order. Particles bounce randomly on the plate, and gradually accumulate along nodal lines, whereas the instantaneous random effect is inevitable, meaning that the trajectories of particles are uncertain. Here, the vibration tweezer is proposed by programmable two-frequency driving Chladni patterns. Different materials can be precisely and flexibly trapped to the vibration node. The vibration tweezer is further programmed for arbitrary positions by solving the vibration inverse problem. Then, different controllable trajectories “PKU” manipulation of particle can be achieved through switching the tweezer positions. Most importantly, the vibration tweezer exhibits the morphology of granular materials assemblages with collection, motion, and rotation. This work paves the way for the control of complex self-assembly, thereby enabling programmable manipulation of granular materials and micro robots.