the robot crab
is smaller than a flea and capable of movements including walking, turning and
jumping, its inventors from the USA's Northwestern University say it
gives a glimpse into the future of robotics, when microscale devices could be
used to perform tasks in tight spaces, including the human body,
"You
might imagine micro-robots as agents to repair or assemble small structures or
machines in industry or as surgical assistants to clear clogged arteries, to
stop internal bleeding or to eliminate cancerous tumors — all in minimally
invasive procedures," said engineer John A Rogers, who led the project, the
robot's tiny size is made possible because it has no complex hardware, hydraulics
or electrical circuits, instead, it is made of a metal alloy known as a
"shape-memory alloy", which means it changes shape when heated and
then returns to the previous shape as it cools,
to create
the crabs, the researchers initially cut them from a flat sheet. They then
cover these shapes with a stretched rubber substrate, which causes them to
buckle into their intended three-dimensional form as the rubber relaxes,
a thin
glass coating ensures that as that body part cools, it will once again spring
back to the bent shape. According to Rogers, the robot's tiny size is an
advantage when it comes to the rate of cooling, "In fact, reducing the
sizes of these robots allows them to run faster," said Rogers,
the heating
process, which the researchers call "laser-induced local thermal
actuation" in a paper
published in Science Robots, is quite precise and produces a range of
movement, I am looking at a tape measure with millimeter calibrations on one side, and I am trying to imagine this robot crab at just a half a millimeter, amazing!
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