Smallest walking robots in the world

Northwestern University has a little robot in the shape of a crab. It is almost invisible, only half a millimeter wide, smaller than a chip. A robot remote controlled street vendor so microscopic that it is the only one in the world. This is the initial phase of the research, but this technology could be useful for making small robots for practical work in tight places.

The little crab robot has no hydraulic or electrical power, but can make various movements thanks to the elasticity and resilience of its body. It is made of a alloy material: shape memory. This means that when heated, it changes into the remembered form. It is a laser beam that heats the robot. The researchers used the laser not only because it activates the robot remotely, but also because it chooses its direction of travel.

Scientists used a certain technique to make such a small one. Plane and planar geometries were created, giving rise to precursors of walking crab structures. Next, the precursors were glued to a rubber substrate with a slight tension. The moment the tension is released, a controlled deformation occurs that causes the crab to burst into 3D shapes. Here you can get robots of different shapes, just like that of the crab.

Robotics is an exciting area of ​​research, and the development of micro-scale robots is a fun topic for academic exploration. You could imagine microrobots as agents to repair or assemble small structures or machinery in industry, or as surgical assistants to clear clogged arteries, stop internal bleeding or remove cancerous tumors – all in minimally invasive procedures.

Professor John Rogers, Northwestern University