Asymmetric Laser Enabled High-Throughput Manufacturing of Multiform Magnetically Actuated Graphene-Based Robots for Various Water Depths

Abstract

Achieving large-scale and facile manufacturing for diverse small-scale robots is critical in the field of small-scale robots. At present, conventional manufacturing methods have limitations in terms of efficiency, environmental friendliness, and operability. In particular, it is difficult to facilely process multiform small-scale robots through a single processing technology only. In this work, with the introduction of an asymmetric laser, multiforms of graphene, including powders, helical, and sheet, were successfully fabricated by simply adjusting laser processing parameters only. This allowed the development of multiform graphene-based robots capable of being actuated in various water depths, including underwater swarm, suspended helical, and floated sheet robots. Importantly, such robots can move smoothly in various trajectories under magnetic fields, including simple geometrical shapes and complicated words, demonstrating good maneuverability. Moreover, this manufacturing method enables the efficient production of multiform robots in different sizes, from 5 to 48 units, within 1 min. The proposed asymmetric laser technology is possible to provide a new means for manufacturing high-performance small-scale robots at high throughput.