Abstract
Nanomachines and nanorobots are nanoscale mechanisms that transform an input motion or force into some desirable output. These machines offer significant applications in nanotechnology, biotechnology, and medicine. To perform a specific task, nanomachines must have a controllable kinematic structure. Our team in past has proposed amino acids as the links for these kinematic chains (peptide chains). The kinematic formulation of these chains are now well developed. One noteworthy outcome has been design and development of 7-R closed loop one-degree-of-freedom spatial mechanisms (cyclic peptide). Unlike in macro-scale machines and robots, traditional kinematic pairs such as prismatic and revolute actuators cannot be employed in nano kinematic chains. However, a one-degree-of-freedom nano-scale kinematic chain can be a viable alternative to traditional actuators and can be used as the driving module in more complex nano systems. We have designed, simulated, fabricated, and tested several 7-R closed loop systems. Due to the one-degree-of-freedom nature of 7-R kinematic chains, their geometry as a function of one input parameter is completely predictable and repeatable. However, controlling this input parameter in real applications remains an open question. In this work, we explore perturbation of the electric force field as a control mechanism to manipulate the motions of these kinematic nano robots and machines. Two different external electric field models, uniform and non-uniform, are developed. Protofold II, an in-house developed protein folding software, is used to simulate the range of motion for closed-loop cyclic 7-R peptides with electric field perturbations. The results show that one-degree-of-freedom closed loop systems have the potential to be precisely controlled by external physical stimuli. This discovery presents significant potential in design and implementation of nanorobots and nano machines for applications in biotechnology.
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Mundrane, C., Chorsi, M., Vinogradova, O., Ilies, H., Kazerounian, K. (2022). Exploring Electric Field Perturbations as the Actuator for Nanorobots and Nanomachines. In: Altuzarra, O., Kecskeméthy, A. (eds) Advances in Robot Kinematics 2022. ARK 2022. Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics, vol 24. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08140-8_28
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