Fully programmable, autonomous robots “smaller than a grain of salt” have been developed in a collaborative effort between research teams from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan. Claimed to be the world’s smallest of their kind, these nanoscale robots are expected to find applications in medicine, microscale manufacturing, and other areas. Remarkably, the researchers contend that these robots will cost only one penny each to manufacture.
Penn Engineering was responsible for the physical structure and features of these microscopic robots, while Michigan scientists gave the robots their ‘brains.’ The Michigan lab involved in this collaboration also holds the record for creating the world’s smallest computer.
Barely visible robots move using ion propulsion
Let’s look at Penn Engineering’s work first. Scientists there designed the physical aspects of the tiny robots, each measuring about 200 x 300 x 50 micrometers. This is similar to the scales of many microorganisms, and as such, they face different physical challenges than the robots with which we are most familiar.
With the challenges of drag and viscosity that such tiny robots will face, it was decided to make them ‘swimmers.’ However, to keep them small, the scientists designed an entirely new propulsion system so that moving parts (such as limbs) wouldn’t be needed for locomotion.
Interestingly, these robots generate an electric field that “nudges ions in the surrounding solution,” allowing them to “swim.” Adjusting this ion field can help robots move in complex and/or coordinated patterns. Having no moving parts also makes them highly durable; for example, they can be picked up with a micropipette without being damaged.
Another challenge of their tiny size was the power supply. The design that was adopted uses solar power, with the solar cells making up the majority mass of the robot body. Even though solar was maximized, it yields only 75 nanowatts of power, underscoring the importance of efficiency.
Communicating with light and a waggle dance
To be fully programmable, autonomous robots, these tiny machines need on-board processing, and this is where the expertise of the University of Michigan was applied.
According to the source blog, the robot's physical components get their smarts courtesy of a highly efficient processor, memory, and sensors. To program the robots, pulses of light are used – thus the solar panels do double duty. Meanwhile, to retrieve data from the robots and their sensors, they have been programmed to perform a honeybee-like waggle dance using their propulsion systems.
These robots can be deployed in their hundreds to get their tasks completed. Their autonomous operational life is measured in months, thanks to solar power and their level of efficiency. The first test sample carried a temperature sensor, which is good for all kinds of analytical tasks. However, it would not be challenging to switch the sensor.
Despite all this advanced technology at play, the researchers say that these fully programmable, autonomous robots “can be fabricated cheaply at scale,” costing only a penny each to produce. What we are seeing now is “just the first chapter” of micro-robots, promise the researchers.
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