Chinese engineers create the smallest remote-controlled robot
A team of engineers from China and the United States have built the world’s smallest remote-controlled robot, which looks like a lobster measuring just half a millimeter in size. in its appearance.
These tiny robots have a range of potential applications, from aiding in surgery to unblock arteries, stopping internal bleeding, removing cancerous tumors, and repairing equipment in hard-to-reach places, the smaller they are, the more possible scenarios.
Although this robot is not yet ready for repair, the methods that depend on it can be used in the future to create small robots in almost any desired configuration.
“Our technology provides different ways to control motion, a robot can move at an average speed equal to half its body length per second,” says mechanical engineer Huang Yonggang from Northwestern University in Illinois.
The technology on which the robot is based was developed eight years ago: individual parts of the robot are fixed on a flexible substrate with shape memory, which takes one of two positions depending on the degree of heating. The lasers, acting here as a “remote control”, heat up certain parts of the robot in succession, and these parts take the desired shape and push the crab forward.
There is no need for an additional power supply or motors, and the thin transparent film ensures that components return to their original shape when cooled very quickly due to the compact size of the device.
By pointing the laser at different parts of the robocrab, researchers can determine one direction or another of movement, and by adjusting the frequency of the laser’s flashes, you can change the robot’s speed.
