Rail-guided multi-robot system for 3D cellular hydrogel assembly with coordinated nanomanipulation

The 3D assembly of micro-/nano-building blocks with multi-nanomanipulator coordinated manipulation is one of the central elements of nanomanipulation. A novel rail-guided nanomanipulation system was proposed for the assembly of a cellular vascular-like hydrogel microchannel. The system was equipped with three nanomanipulators and was restricted on the rail in order to realize the arbitrary change of the end-effectors during the assembly. It was set up with hybrid motors to achieve both a large operating space and a 30 nm positional resolution. The 2D components such as the assembly units were fabricated through the encapsulation of cells in the hydrogel. The coordinated manipulation strategies among the multi-nanomanipulators were designed with vision feedback and were demonstrated through the bottom-up assembly of the vascular-like microtube. As a result, the multi-layered microchannel was assembled through the cooperation of the nanomanipulation system.