A remote-controlled walking robot nearly half a millimeter in size was created by engineers at Northwestern University in the United States.
Smaller than a chip, the robot is powered by a complex energy source. To allow him to move and perform his tasks, materials scientist John Rogers and his colleagues instead relied on the elastic stability of his body.
They use an alloy that recovers its shape memorized when heated. To create locomotion, this micromachine remembers its initial shape and vice versa.
In their experiment, the Northwestern team used a scanning laser beam to quickly heat the robot to various target locations on its body.
A thin layer of glass elastic returns the corresponding part of the structure to its deformed shape upon coolingMr. explained. Rogers in a press release.
” Because these structures are small, they cool very quickly. In fact, the size of these robots allows them to work faster. “
Not only does the laser remotely control the robot to activate it, but the direction of the laser scan also determines the direction of the robot’s walk. By swiping from left to right, for example, the robot moves from right to leftnote the researchers in the statement.
Today, technology allows the robot to walk at an average speed of half its body length per second.
Several possible uses
Currently, this work is only exploratory, but the researchers believe their technology will allow practical tasks to be performed in very confined spaces.
We can think of microrobots as surgical assistants to unblock arteries, stop internal bleeding or destroy cancerous tumors.said John Rogers.
In addition, the team also created a one-millimeter robot that resembles earthworms, cricket and beetles.
This creation is described in the review Science Robotics (New window) (in English).
In September, both teams appeared in the magazine Nature (New window) (in English) the smallest flying structure made by humans.
Source: Radio-Canada
