Developed by Northwestern University engineers The smallest remote control walking robot Ever seen and comes out in the form of a small and lovely crab. It was created by the same team that has already made seed-sized flying microchips.

Together only Half a millimeter wideSmall crabs can Bending, spinning, climbing, walking, turning and even jumping. Researchers have also developed millimeter robots that look like caterpillars, cricketers and beetles.

While the research, published in Science Robotics, is exploratory at this point, researchers believe their technology could bring the field closer to realization. Micro-sized robots that can perform practical tasks in confined spaces. Northwestern University has released a video showing the capabilities of a small crab robot.

“Robotics is an exciting field of research, and the development of small-scale robots is a fun topic for academic research,” said John A. Rogers, who led the experimental work. “You can imagine Microbots as agents for repairing or assembling small structures Or machines in the industry or as Surgical assistants to clear locked arteries“Stop internal bleeding or remove malignant tumors, all with minimally invasive procedures.”

“Our technology allows for a variety of controlled motion modes and can travel at half the average length of its body length in seconds,” added Yonggan Huang, who led the theoretical work. “It is very difficult for earth-based robots to achieve this on such a small scale.

Small on a flea, the crab does not work with sophisticated equipment, hydraulics or electricity. Instead, Its strength lies in the elastic endurance of the body. To create the robot, the researchers used a The material of the form memory alloy, which when heated is transformed into its “remembered” form. In this case, the researchers used a scanned laser beam to quickly heat the robot in specific areas of its body. A thin layer of glass elastically restores the corresponding part of the structure to its deformed shape upon cooling.

When a robot moves from one phase to another, it deforms to a memorized shape and, conversely, creates motion.. The laser not only remotely controls the robot to activate it, but also the direction of the laser scan determines the direction of the robot’s gait. For example, a left-to-right scan forces a robot to move from right to left.