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May 27, 2022

Andrew Campbell 

A group of scientists has developed the world's tiniest remote-controlled walking robot, which is only half a millimeter broad (less than a fiftieth of an inch). A group of scientists has developed the world's tiniest remote-controlled walking robot, which is half a millimeter broad and thinner than the thickness of a US penny. Engineers from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, constructed the world's tiniest remote-controlled walking robot, according to research published in the journal Science Robotics titled "Submillimeter-scale multi-material terrestrial robots."

The creation of the tiny metal critters took a year and a half, according to coauthor John A. Rogers, the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. These breakthroughs in materials, production, actuation, and sensing, as well as the robot crabs, which are composed of a malleable shape-memory alloy, add to an expanding set of capabilities in this developing sector of technology.

The robot is based on technology that was developed eight years ago. The technology is capable of walking at half its body length per second and performing a variety of regulated motion styles. Indeed, shrinking the size of these robots allows them to run more quickly. Miniature crab robots could be utilized for minimally invasive surgeries or to assist in the installation and repair of small devices.