Endoluminal and endocavitary intervention via natural orifices of the body is an emerging trend in medicine, further underpinning the future of early intervention and precision surgery. This motivates the development of small continuum robots to navigate freely in confined and tortuous environment. The trade-off between a large range of motion and high precision with concomitant actuation cross-talk poses a major challenge. Here, we present a submillimeter-scale fiber robot (~1 mm) capable of decoupled macro and micro manipulations for intervention and operation. The thin optical fibers, working both as mechanical tendons and light waveguides, can be pulled/pushed to actuate the macro tendon-driven continuum robot and transmit light to actuate the liquid crystal elastomer-based micro built-in light-driven parallel robot. The combination of the decoupled macro and micro motions can accomplish accurate cross-scale motion from several millimeters down to tens of micrometers. In vivo animal studies are performed to demonstrate its positioning accuracy of precise micro operations in endoluminal or endocavitary intervention.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adr6428 | DOI Listing |
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Ecostrat GmbH Berlin Germany.
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Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21205, United States; Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21205, United States; Institute for NanoBio Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, United States; Center for Microphysiological Systems, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21205, United States. Electronic address:
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Department of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 999077, China.
Overall water splitting (OWS) to produce hydrogen has attracted large attention in recent years due to its ecological-friendliness and sustainability. However, the efficiency of OWS has been forced by the sluggish kinetics of the four-electron oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The replacement of OER by alternative electrooxidation of small molecules with more thermodynamically favorable potentials may fundamentally break the limitation and achieve hydrogen production with low energy consumption, which may also be accompanied by the production of more value-added chemicals than oxygen or by electrochemical degradation of pollutants.
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School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230002, China.
LLC resonant converters have emerged as essential components in DC charging station modules, thanks to their outstanding performance attributes such as high power density, efficiency, and compact size. The stability of these converters is crucial for vehicle endurance and passenger experience, making reliability a top priority. However, malfunctions in the switching transistor or current sensor can hinder the converter's ability to maintain a resonant state and stable output voltage, leading to a notable reduction in system efficiency and output capability.
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January 2025
Engineering Research Center of Western Resource Innovation Medicine Green Manufacturing, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710127, China.
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