NanoRobotic Systems Lab - Michigan State University (NRS Lab, Lixin Dong, MSU)

NanoRobotic Systems Lab

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Lixin Dong

Assistant Professor

Michigan State University

Electrical & Computer Engineering

2120 Engineering Building

East Lansing, MI 48824

Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology

Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science & Engineering

Office: 2325C Engineering Building

Tel: (517) 353-3918

Fax: (517) 353-1980

Email: ldong@egr.msu.edu

Homepage: http://www.egr.msu.edu/~ldong

Faculty Profile, Biography

News

1.29.10

Dr. Fubo Rao joined our group. Welcome! Dr. Rao is co-sponsored by MSU Microtechnology Lab directed by Prof. Wen Li.

1.28.10

New Publication: A. Subramanian, L. X. Dong, B. J. Nelson, and A. Ferreira, “Supermolecular Switches Batch-fabricated from Multiwalled Nanotubes,” Applied Physics Letters, Jan. 2010. (To appear)

1.6.10

New Publication: L. X. Dong, X. Y. Tao, L. Zhang, X. B. Zhang, and B. J. Nelson, “Plumbing the Depths of the Nanometer Scale: Attogram Mass Transport via Nanochannels”, IEEE Nanotechnology Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 1, Mar. 2010. (To appear)

11.25.09

New Publication: X. Y. Tao, L. X. Dong, X. N. Wang, W. K. Zhang, B. J. Nelson, and X. D. Li, B₄C Nanowire - Carbon Microfiber Hybrid Structures and Composites from Cotton T-shirts, Advanced Materials, Nov. 2009. (To appear)

11.18.09

L. X. Dong gave a talk on "Nanorobotic Systems and Nanomanufacturing" at the Nanotechnology Conference: Nanotechnology, Nanorobots, Nanoindustry, and Nanoeducation, IEEE Southeastern Michigan (SEM) Section, Ypsilanti, Michigan, Nov. 18, 2009. (Invited)

10.20.09

New Publication: A. Subramanian, L. X. Dong, and B. J. Nelson, "Stability and Analysis of Configuration-tunable Bi-directional MWNT Bearings," Nanotechnology, Vol. 20, No. 49, Art. No. 495704, Dec. 2009.

10.01.09

Dr. Dafei Kang joined our group. Welcome!

09.02.09

New Publication: A. Subramanian, A. R. Alt, L. X. Dong, B. E. Kratochvill, and B. J. Nelson, "Electrostatic Actuation and Electromechanical Switching Behavior of One-Dimensional Nanostructures," ACS Nano, Vol. 3, No. 10, pp. 2953-2964, Oct. 2009.

08.15.09

New Publication: L. Zhang, J. J. Abbott, L. X. Dong, K. E. Peyer, B. E. Kratochvil, H. X. Zhang, B. Christos, and B. J. Nelson, Characterizing the Swimming Properties of Artificial Bacterial Flagella, Nano Letters, doi. 10.1021/nl901869j, Sept. 2009.

08.09.09

Zheng Fan joined our group. Welcome!

08.08.09

Dr. Li Zhang’s Nano Today Cover Competition winning image featured on the cover of the August issue of Nano Today.

07.21.09

New publication: L. X. Dong, L. Zhang, B. E. Kratochvil, K. Y. Shou, and B. J. Nelson, Dual-chirality Helical Nanobelts: Linear-to-rotary Motion Converters for Three-Dimensional Microscopy, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, Vol. 18, No.5, pp. 1047-1053, Oct. 2009.

07.21.09

New publication: J. J. Abbott, K. E. Peyer, M. C. Lagomarsino, L. Zhang, L. X. Dong, I. K. Kaliakatsos, and B. J. Nelson, How Should Microrobots Swim? The International Journal of Robotics Research, Vol. 28, Nos. 11-12, pp. 1434-1437, Nov. 2009.

07.15.09

New Publication: X. Y. Tao, L. X. Dong, W. K. Zhang, X. B. Zhang, J. P. Cheng, H. Huang, and Y. P. Gan, Controllable Melting and Flow of β-Sn in Flexible Amorphous Carbon Nanotubes, Carbon, Vol. 47, No. 13, pp. 3122-3127, Nov. 2009.

Progress in robotics over the past years has dramatically extended our ability to explore the world from perception, cognition and manipulation perspectives at a variety of scales extending from the edges of the solar system down to individual atoms. At the bottom of this scale, technology has been moving toward greater control of the structure of matter, suggesting the feasibility of achieving thorough control of the molecular structure of matter atom by atom. Nanorobotics represents the next stage in miniaturization for maneuvering nanoscale objects. Nanorobotics is the study of robotics at the nanometer scale, and includes robots that are nanoscale in size and large robots capable of manipulating objects that have dimensions in the nanoscale range with nanometer resolution. The main goals of nanorobotics are to provide effective tools for the experimental explorationof the nanoworld, and to push the boundaries of this exploration from a robotics research perspective.

The primary research direction at NanoRobotic Systems Lab (NRS Lab) lies in this emerging interdisciplinary field. The field of nanorobotics brings together several disciplines, including nanofabrication processes used for producing nanoscale robots, nanoactuators, nanosensors, and physical modeling at nano scales. Nanorobotic systems emphasize the engineering aspect of nanorobotics and include the manufacturing and application technologies of nanorobotic manipulation systems, nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), and nanorobots (nano-sized robots, which have yet to be realized). NEMS will serve as both the tools to be used for fabricating future nanorobots as well as the components from which these nanorobots may be developed. At present, nanorobotic manipulation and assembly are one of the main approaches for building and characterization of NEMS. Our current projects focus on a nanorobotic assembly station using multiprobe nanorobotic manipulators inside scanning electron microscopes (SEMs), high resolution nanorobotic manipulation inside transmission electron microscopes (TEMs), nanorobotic systems on a tip, atomic scale mass delivery, and NEMS based on shell engineered carbon nanotubes, helical nanobelts, and peapod nanowires. Targeted application fields include nanomaterial science, bionanotechnology, and nanoelectronics.