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A recent research work led by the team of Dr. Yajing SHEN and Dr. Zhengbao YANG, jointly operated among BME and MNE departments of CityU, developed a battery-less soft millirobot that can move, sense, and communicate remotely by coupling the magnetic and piezoelectric effects. On the basis of the previous work “caterpillar robot”, the team integrated a power generation unit within a thin multi-layer film (<0.5 mm), i.e., a lower magnetic composite limb decorated with multiple feet imparts locomotion and a flexible piezoceramic composite film recoveries energy simultaneously.

Under a trigger of external magnetic guidance, the robot can achieve remote locomotion, environment sensing, and wireless communication with no requirement of any on-board battery or wired power supply. The authors expect this research could promote the development and applications of untethered millirobot in biomedical sensing, such as in-body monitoring and diagnosis. The research has been published on the journal Advanced Science with title 'Battery-less soft millirobot that can move, sense, and communicate remotely by coupling the magnetic and piezoelectric effects'.

Press coverage:
(26 Jun 2020) 毛毛虫微型机器人研发成功，可用于携带药物进入人体内 [中國電子網]
(3 Jun 2020) Design of robust superhydrophobic surfaces [Nature]
(3 Jun 2020) 微型軟體機器人在體內/體外生物醫學研究中具備廣泛應用 [电子说]
(22 May 2020) 香港城大研制毫米级軟體機器人，將開拓生物醫學檢測和監察新應用 [XianJiChina]
(16 May 2020) Battery-less soft millirobot that can move, sense, and communicate remotely by coupling the magnetic and piezoelectric effects [Advanced Science]