Is your small robot all that small if it is bigger than a coin? A team of scientists has built the smallest remote-controlled walking robot, which is half a millimeter wide.
Exceedingly tiny robots have a lot of potential uses, from helping out with surgical procedures to repairing machinery in spaces where a wrench can't fit. The bigger they get, the more scenarios they could be used in.
The bot is not ready to go out there in the world and do repairs yet, but it is impressive.
It looks and moves like a mini peekytoe crab, according to the researchers. The techniques they have developed can be used to make tiny robots.
The robot is being manipulated. The University ofNorthwestern.
Yonggang Huang, a mechanical engineer from the University of Illinois, says that their technology enables a variety of controlled motion and can walk with an average speed of half its body length per second.
It is very difficult to achieve at such small scales.
The robot is based on a technology that was originally developed eight years ago and is similar to a pop-up book: robot parts are fixed to a stretched rubber substrate and when the material is relaxed, the device pops up into its shape.
The robot shape can be precisely controlled by calibrating the base pieces. The robot's moving parts are made from a shape-memory alloy material. Depending on whether or not they are being heated, these materials switch between two different shapes.
As the parts of the robot evolve into different shapes, lasers are used to propel the crab forward. There is no need for a power source or an engine, and a thin glass layer ensures the components go back to their original shape as they cool.
The rate of cooling is very fast because the structures are so small.
The researchers were able to set the direction of movement by aiming the lasers at different parts of the crab. The speed of movement of the robot can be adjusted by adjusting the laser scanning frequencies.
This is the next step in a trend that has seen robots get smaller and smaller over time, whether that is to make them more resistant to external forces, to target drugs to treat diseases, or to build up larger, modular structures from smaller parts.
The researchers say they can get robots to do the same things using the same techniques. If the robot is in a line of sight to the laser, it can be manipulated remotely.
Robotics is an exciting field of research, and the development of microscale robots is a fun topic for academic exploration, says Rogers.
Micro-robots can be used to repair or assemble small structures or machines in industry or as surgical assistants to clear arteries, stop internal bleeding or eliminate cancer.
The research has been published.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
