The tractor beam works by surrounding the object with high-intensity sound to create a force field that keeps the objects in place.
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A tractor beam, reminiscent of the one used in sci-fi classic Star Trek, has been developed that uses sound to capture and manoeuvre objects in mid-air.
In a first, researchers have managed to create a tractor beam using high-amplitude sound waves that cannot only levitate objects in air, but can also grab them and move them around as needed.
Professor Drinkwater said the development could also lead to “non-contact production lines” for handling delicate or unsafe materials without contact.
Last year, a similar tractor beam device, which used light instead of sound, was shown to move particles as big as a fifth of a millimeter in diameter across a distance of almost 8 inches. The second is a vortex that secures objects in the middle, and the third is like a high intensity cage that holds objects in place from all directions. By controlling the sound waves, the team could rotate, move or hold the object nearly instantly.
To achieve such fine control of the sound waves, researchers at the Universities of Bristol and Sussex collaborated with Bristol-based Ultrahaptics. The very first is an acoustic pressure area that resembles a set of fingers or forceps.
No, it’s not a promotional stunt for The Force Awakens, scientists really have created a real-life tractor beam… “All my hard work has paid off. It’s brilliant”.
The team is already working on a smaller more precise version of the system that would be able to manipulate particles inside the body.
In regards to the device’s ability to turn sound waves into a tractor beam for small objects, study co-author and mechanical engineer Bruce Drinkwater with the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom told Live Science that it was just a matter of “harnessing” the “force of sound” that one might experience at a rock concert.
With this new technology, scientists can manipulate cells, liquids, compounds or living things without touching them.
“Single-beam levitation could manipulate particles inside our body for applications in targeted drug delivery or acoustically-controlled micro-machines that do not interfere with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)”, says the article.
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This involved simulating as many possible configurations of sound sources and drive signal as possible and analysing the results to see which would “trap” the object.
