Smaller than a flea, walks, bends, crawls, turns and jumps
The smallest remote-controlled walking robot in the history of a crab
Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, May 25 (Reporter Zhang Mengran) According to a study published in the journal "Science Robotics" on the 25th, engineers at Northwestern University have developed the smallest remote-controlled walking robot in history. Appears in crab form.
Only half a millimeter wide, this tiny crab can bend, twist, crawl, walk, turn and even jump.The researchers also developed millimeter-sized robots that resemble inchworms, crickets and beetles.
Robotics is an exciting area of research, and the development of microrobots is an interesting topic of academic inquiry, said John Rogers, who led the experimental work.
The researchers say the new technique enables a variety of controlled movements and can walk at an average speed of half body length per second.Achieving this on such a small scale is very challenging for land robots.
Smaller than a flea, the tiny crab robot isn't powered by complex hardware, hydraulics or electricity.Rather, its strength lies in the elasticity of its body.To build the robot, the researchers used a shape-memory alloy material that transforms into a "memory" shape when heated.The researchers used a scanned laser beam to rapidly heat up different target locations on the robot's body, and a thin coating of glass elastically returned the corresponding structural parts to their pre-deformed shapes as they cooled.
As the robot moves from one stage to another, morphing into a memory shape and back again, it creates movement.The laser can not only remotely control the robot to start, but the scanning direction also determines the walking direction of the robot.For example, scanning from left to right will cause the robot to move from right to left.
Because these structures are so small, they cool very quickly, Rogers explained.In fact, reducing the size of these robots allows them to run faster.
The researchers also introduced an assembly method inspired by children's pop-up books.The research team fabricated the precursor of the walking crab structure in a flat, planar geometry.They then bonded these precursors to a slightly stretched rubber substrate.When the stretched substrate relaxes, a controlled buckling process occurs, causing the crab to "pop" into a precisely defined three-dimensional shape.With this fabrication method, the research team can make walking robots of almost any size or 3D shape.
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The same research team unveiled a winged microchip last September, the smallest man-made flying structure to date, that was featured on the cover of the journal Nature.Now the research team has gone one step further in the field of building tiny robots, creating the smallest remote-controlled walking robot.In practical applications, you can think of it as a miniature version of the machine in the repair or assembly industry, or as a miniature surgical assistant to help human doctors clear blocked arteries, stop bleeding or eliminate cancerous tumors, in other words, it will be the future An important "player" in minimally invasive surgery.
