热烈祝贺我组曹川、牟方志、马会茹等撰写的论文“Harnessing Disparities in Magnetic Microswarms: From Construction to Collaborative Tasks”被期刊Advanced Science（2022年IF：15.1，中科院一区期刊）接收!
在自然群体中，个体在尺寸、经验和功能方面的差异往往会使群体内部产生异质性和分级结构，从而促进集群能高效、协调地完成各种任务。从这一现象中获得灵感，我们提出了一种将具有明显尺寸、形状和性质差异的磁性微/纳米机器人（MNRs）组织成具有可调异构性、分级结构和协作任务能力的异构集群的通用策略。在该策略中，通过精心调节旋转磁场的参数，可以操控不同的磁性MNRs，使其在同步和去同步之间呈现可逆的转变。在开放空间和复杂的微通道中，利用这种转变以及种间流体动力学相互作用的鲁棒性，不同种类的MNRs可以被组织成异构集群，且其集群结构可以动态地从单层级结构调整为领导者-追随者式的分级结构。此外，通过为不同MNRs分配不同的功能，建立一种“分工”形式，产生协作效应，异构集群可以以协同传感-磁驱导航-货物投放的方式有序执行精确的药物递送，在精确肿瘤治疗中展现出巨大潜力。该发现表明属性差异和分级结构将在未来高效生物医用集群微纳机器人的设计中发挥关键作用。
原文摘要如下：Individual differences in size, experience, and task specialization in natural swarms often result in heterogeneity and hierarchy, facilitating efficient and coordinated task accomplishment. Drawing inspiration from this phenomenon, we propose a general strategy for organizing magnetic micro/nanorobots (MNRs) with apparent differences in size, shape, and properties into cohesive microswarms with tunable heterogeneity, controlled spatial hierarchy, and collaborative tasking capability. In this strategy, disparate magnetic MNRs can be manipulated to show reversible transitions between synchronization and desynchronization by elaborately regulating parameter sets of the rotating magnetic field. Utilizing these transitions, alongside local robust hydrodynamic interactions, diverse heterospecific pairings of disparate magnetic MNRs can be organized into heterogeneous microswarms, and their spatial organization can be dynamically adjusted from egalitarian to leader-follower-like hierarchies on the fly, both in open space and complex microchannels. Furthermore, when specializing the disparate MNRs with distinct functions (“division of labor”) such as sensing and drug carrying, they can execute precise drug delivery targeting unknown sites in a collaborative sensing-navigating-cargo dropping sequence, demonstrating significant potential for precise tumor treatment. These findings highlight the critical roles of attribute differences and hierarchical organization in designing efficient swarming micro/nanorobots for biomedical applications.
