Researchers developed a new way to manage the collective movement of nanorobots. (No, not through mind control—though how awesome would that be?) A team from the Chinese University of Hong Kong applied swarm behaviors to small-scale bots, allowing “controlled morphological changes and splitting.”

In the future, nanobots will save lives. Scientists from Hong Kong have made a breakthrough in controlling swarms of minuscule robots to treat blood clots. A team of scientists has designed and implemented a strategy using oscillating magnetic fields to "reconfigure paramagnetic nanoparticles into ribbon-like swarms."

Led by Associate Professor Li Zhang, a team of scientists from the Chinese University of Hong Kong designed and implemented a strategy of using oscillating magnetic fields to create highly reconfigurable ribbon-like swarms of nano-robots, millions of magnetic nanoparticles each less than one micron wide, or one-fifth the length of a red blood cell.

Researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong developed a new way of controlling nano-robots, making them capable of doing complex tasks in minimally invasive surgeries, the finding was announced here Thursday.  Led by Zhang Li, associate professor of the university's Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, the team has implemented swarm behaviors on nano-robots, allowing controlled morphological changes and splitting.

在自然界中我們不難見到動物如螞蟻集體行動，香港中文大學有研究團隊因此受啟發，成功將動物集體行動的特性引入納米機械人，並轉變其形態和將其分裂，這種技術有望於日後用作治療中風，有關研究已在國際科學期刊Nature Communications發表。

中大機械與自動化工程學系副教授張立表示，過去看到校園內，螞蟻群爬樹的群體行為，觸發將動物群體行為引入納米機械人中。經歷約10個月的研究實驗，利用動態自組技術，成功將幾百萬個分散的磁性納米粒子組裝成可控的人工微型群體。並透過調節磁場的振幅和頻率，控制它們進行多種形態變化，包括伸長和縮短、分裂和融合。

香港中文大學機械與自動化工程學系副教授張立（左）與他的博士生俞江帆（右）展示人腦模型和磁性納米粒子。很多科幻電影以納米機械人為題材，它們能隨意移動、變形，甚至自我修復，完成不可能的任務。不過現實中，要控制數百萬個納米機械人集體行動和變形，卻是一大技術難題。張立教授的研究團隊最近成功克服這個難題，控制一群納米機械人變形和分裂。研究結果剛在國際科學期刊《自然通訊》（Nature Communications）上發表。

鳥兒成群在天上飛、魚兒在塘中游，都是大自然常見的現象，中文大學機械與自動化工程學系副教授張立在校園中看見成群螞蟻聚集運送食物甚至橫空做橋，雖然是習以為常之事，但卻讓他想起自己正在做的納米機械人研究，「因為動物成群，佢哋可以避開獵食者，亦可以做到協同效應，發揮唔同嘅功能，如果單獨就做唔到。」他以此作為研究起點，發展出納米機械人技術，利用極微小群體的伸縮特性，醫治腦中風。