RESUMEN
The ability to govern particle assembly in an evaporative-driven additive manufacturing (AM) can realize multi-scale features fundamental to creating printed electronics. However, existing techniques remain challenging and often require templates or contaminating solutes. We explore the control of particle deposition in 3D-printed colloids by diffusiophoresis, a previously unexplored mechanism in multi-scale AM. Diffusiophoresis can introduce spontaneous phoretic particle motion by establishing local solute concentration gradients. We show that diffusiophoresis can play a dominant role in complex evaporative-driven particle assembly, enabling a fundamentally new and versatile control of particle deposition in a multi-scale AM process.
RESUMEN
The freeform generation of active electronics can impart advanced optical, computational, or sensing capabilities to an otherwise passive construct by overcoming the geometrical and mechanical dichotomies between conventional electronics manufacturing technologies and a broad range of three-dimensional (3D) systems. Previous work has demonstrated the capability to entirely 3D print active electronics such as photodetectors and light-emitting diodes by leveraging an evaporation-driven multi-scale 3D printing approach. However, the evaporative patterning process is highly sensitive to print parameters such as concentration and ink composition. The assembly process is governed by the multiphase interactions between solutes, solvents, and the microenvironment. The process is susceptible to environmental perturbations and instability, which can cause unexpected deviation from targeted print patterns. The ability to print consistently is particularly important for the printing of active electronics, which require the integration of multiple functional layers. Here we demonstrate a synergistic integration of a microfluidics-driven multi-scale 3D printer with a machine learning algorithm that can precisely tune colloidal ink composition and classify complex internal features. Specifically, the microfluidic-driven 3D printer can rapidly modulate ink composition, such as concentration and solvent-to-cosolvent ratio, to explore multi-dimensional parameter space. The integration of the printer with an image-processing algorithm and a support vector machine-guided classification model enables automated, in-situ pattern classification. We envision that such integration will provide valuable insights in understanding the complex evaporative-driven assembly process and ultimately enable an autonomous optimisation of printing parameters that can robustly adapt to unexpected perturbations.
RESUMEN
Reinforcement learning control methods can impart robots with the ability to discover effective behavior, reducing their modeling and sensing requirements, and enabling their ability to adapt to environmental changes. However, it remains challenging for a robot to achieve navigation in confined and dynamic environments, which are characteristic of a broad range of biomedical applications, such as endoscopy with ingestible electronics. Herein, a compact, 3D-printed three-linked-sphere robot synergistically integrated with a reinforcement learning algorithm that can perform adaptable, autonomous crawling in a confined channel is demonstrated. The scalable robot consists of three equally sized spheres that are linearly coupled, in which the extension and contraction in specific sequences dictate its navigation. The ability to achieve bidirectional locomotion across frictional surfaces in open and confined spaces without prior knowledge of the environment is also demonstrated. The synergistic integration of a highly scalable robotic apparatus and the model-free reinforcement learning control strategy can enable autonomous navigation in a broad range of dynamic and confined environments. This capability can enable sensing, imaging, and surgical processes in previously inaccessible confined environments in the human body.