Marking a major step forward in microscale robotics, Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have unveiled the world’s smallest fully programmable, autonomous robots. Barely visible to the naked eye, each robot measures around 0.2 by 0.3 by 0.05 mm, placing it at the scale of many microorganisms. Despite their tiny size, the robots can sense their surroundings, move in complex patterns, and operate independently for months.
While the propulsion system was developed at Penn, the ultra-low-power “brain” was created at the University of Michigan. Together, the technologies allow the robots to swim through liquid environments, respond to temperature changes, and even coordinate their movements in groups, similar to a school of fish.
Marc Miskin, assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering at Penn, commented that shrinking autonomous robots by a factor of 10,000 opens an entirely new frontier for programmable machines operating at microscopic scales.
One of the biggest challenges in building robots this small has been movement. At the microscale, water behaves less like a fluid and more like thick tar, making propulsion extremely difficult. To overcome this, the Penn team designed a system that moves the surrounding water instead of the robot itself. By generating an electric field, the robots nudge ions in the liquid, which then push nearby water molecules and create forward motion. With no moving parts involved, the robots are highly durable and can swim continuously for months.
See What’s Next in Tech With the Fast Forward Newsletter
Tweets From @varindiamag
Nothing to see here - yet
When they Tweet, their Tweets will show up here.
