1. CHOBOTIX: Chemical Processing by Swarm Robotics Frantisek Stepanek Institute of Chemical Technology Prague, Czech Republic

2. - Design and synthesis of chemical robots - Internally structured particles - Inspired by microorganisms (but non-living) - Capable of chemically modifying their environment - Investigation of their collective behaviour - Applications - Controlled drug release - Intelligent cleaning Project Aims

3. Classical robots are intended for: - performing mechanical tasks - in the macroscopic world Their function is based on electro- mechanical principles Motivation How can we perform chemical tasks on microscopic scale? - in nature: microorganisms - no equivalent available - we try to design & make one

4. Scientific challenges Proposed architecture of a chemical robot 1) semi-permeable protective outer shell 2) controlled molecular transport across shell 3) system of internal compartments/reservoirs 4) application specific reaction chemistry 5) adaptive surface properties 6) bottom-up synthesis, power-up, remote control 10-100 μm

5. Stimuli-responsive smart gels (J. Cejkova, A. Zadrazil, J. Hanus) Structured particle synthesis (M. Singh, J. Dohnal, P. Kovacik) Liposome synthesis (M. Ullrich) Computer-aided design (Z. Grof) Reaction chemistry (V. Tokarova, O. Kaspar) Current Work

6. Application areas of chemical robots: – controlled delivery of medicines (desired location, amount and time) – intelligent cleaning (neutralisation of contaminants, desinfection) – harvesting of distributed / diluted resources – diagnostics / sensing – energy storage New, exciting science! Societal benefits