Miskin lab

Marc Miskin's

Laboratory

NANOROBOTICS

We're a team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania who build cell sized robots. For example, the background image is a real micrograph of one of our robots next to a paramecium.

Here we'll tell you more about what we're working on now and who we are.

PROJECTSPUBLICATIONSABOUT US/
CONTACT INFO

PEOPLE

PI: Marc Miskin, ESE, UPenn
mmiskin@seas.upenn.edu
T: 215-746-6850

Grad students:

Maya Lassiter
mayala@seas.upenn.edu

David Gonzalez-Medrano
davgo@seas.upenn.edu

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Electronically integrated mass manufactured microscopic robots
Marc Miskin, A. Cortese, K. Dorsey, E. Esposito, M. Reynolds, Q. Liu, D. Muller, P. McEuen, I. Cohen, Nature, 2020

Atomic layer deposition for membranes, metamaterials, and machines

K. J. Dorsey, T. G. Pearson, E. Esposito, S. Russell, B. Bircan, Y. Han, M. Z. Miskin, D. A. Muller, I. Cohen, P. L. McEuen, Advanced Materials, 2019.

Graphene-based bimorphs for the fabrication of micron-sized, autonomous origami machines.
MZ Miskin, K Dorsey, B Bircan, M Reynolds, P McEuen, I Cohen. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 2018.

Measuring and Manipulating Surface Adhesion in Graphene

MZ Miskin, C Sun, I Cohen, W Dichtel, P McEuen.

Nano Letters, 2017.

Turning statistical physics models into materials design engines.
MZ Miskin, G Khaira, JJ de Pablo, HM Jaeger. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 2016.

“The Automated Design of Materials Far From Equilibrium”,
MZ Miskin, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, 2016. ISBN-13: 978-3-319-24619-2.

Direct observation of particle interactions and clustering in charged granular streams.
V Lee, SR Waitukaitis, MZ Miskin, HM Jaeger, Nature Physics, 2015.

Lattice Boltzmann simulations of particle-laden liquid bridges: Effects of volume fraction and wettability.
KW Connington, MZ Miskin, T Lee, HM Jaeger, JF Morris, International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 2015.

Optimizing a reconfigurable material via evolutionary computation.
S Wilken, MZ Miskin, HM Jaeger, Physical Review E, 2015.

Evolving Design Rules for the Inverse Granular Packing Problem.
MZ Miskin and HM Jaeger, Soft Matter, 2014.

Particle shape effects on the stress response of granular packings.
AG Athanassiadis, MZ Miskin, P Kaplan, N Rodenberg, SH Lee, J Merritt, E Brown, J Amend, H Lipson, HM Jaeger, Soft Matter, 2014.

Self-organization into quantized eigenstates of a classical wave-driven particle.
S Perrard, M Labousse, MZ Miskin, E Fort, Y Couder, Nature Communications, 2014.

Adapting granular materials through artificial evolution.
MZ Miskin and HM Jaeger, Nature Materials, 2013.

Evolutionary pattern design for copolymer directed self-assembly.
J Qin, GS Khaira, Y Su, GP Garner, MZ Miskin, HM Jaeger, J de Pablo, Soft Matter, 2013.

From nanoscale cohesion to macroscale entanglement: Opportunities for designing granular aggregate behavior by tailoring grain shape and interactions.
HM Jaeger, MZ Miskin, SR Waitukaitis, Powders and Grains Proceedings, 2013.

Droplet formation and scaling in dense suspensions.
MZ Miskin and HM Jaeger, Proceedings of National Academy of Science, 2012.

Statistical characterization of the American sector subauroral polarization stream using incoherent scatter radar.
PJ Erickson, F Beroz, and MZ Miskin, Journal of Geophysical Research, 2012.

PUBLICATIONSback to home

CELL-SIZE MACHINES

We’re researching new technologies for actuation and deploying them in a range of application spaces at the cellular scale.

In particular, we’re developing new technologies to build cell-scale grippers, next generation energy harvesters, and electronically controllable micro-fluidic pumps and valves.

We aim for each of these to be fabricated at low overall costs by using existing semiconductor technology (~$10/mm2). This opens the door to generic, mass produced and disposable microsystems that can perform reprogrammable, mechanical work with cellular precision.

MOVIES

-Array of 10 million actuators

-Graphene-Platinum actuator in action

-Generating fluid flows with graphene-platinum actuators

Projects

NANOSCIENCE FOR ROBOTS

How do you make a robot leg thats just 20 atoms thick? Building a small machine requires even smaller parts. For a cell-sized robot, we often have to fabricate mechanical components with atomically thin dimensions.

Part of our research revolves around developing next generation materials for cell-scale robotics. Some of these materials are for actuation, some for sensing, some for control. We use everything from 1 atom thick layers of graphene to 20 atom thick sheets of glass.

Building at this dimension means we also have to understand phenomena like the robot's interaction with its surface, ambient chemistry, or even biological cells. We also try to turn this relationship around and use our robots as a probe for exploring fundamental science at the micro/nano dimension.

MOVIES:
-Graphene-Glass actuators sensing a change in pH

-Mos2 Capillary Origami cube
-MoS2 Capillary Origami Tetrahedron

-Graphene-Platinum actuator in action

-Measuring graphene adhesion in water

Projects

NANOROBOTS

We’re working to synthesize complex mechanical function and information processing into true cell-sized robots.

Currently, we can build cell-size walking robots that integrate CMOS electronics.

Because of their small size, nano-robots can be fabricated en-mass, powered by light, cost fractions of a cent, and can be injected via syringes,.

Currently, we’re developing and building more complex circuitry for sensing and control to build robots that perform pre-specified tasks (like following a temperature gradient) automatically.

MOVIES

-Walking Robot TypeA
-Walking Robot TypeB

-Walking in a circle

-Sucking up robots

-Deploying 10,000 robots at once

-Waving to an amoeba

Projects

ROBOTIC MATTER

Nanofabrication offers a platform to build millions of robots that work together to act as a material.

Already, we can fabricate roughly 1 million cell-scale robots per silicon wafer. We can also release these machines with roughly 90% yield.

We’re interested in how to design and program robotic elements to produce materials with desired and reprogrammable bulk properties.

Part of this research is experimental, focusing on robot design and fabrication. Part is theoretical, focusing on algorithms that can convert desired material properties into executable instructions for robotic elements.

MOVIES

-Releasing 10,000 robots

Projects

PROJECTS Nanoscience for robots Robotic Matter Nanorobotics Cell-sized machines -back to home-