Millimetre-scale walking robot is smallest ever

At 0.5mm wide, the robot can bend, twist, crawl, walk, turn and jump. The researchers also developed millimetre-sized robots resembling inchworms, crickets and beetles. The research is currently exploratory, but the team in Illinois, USA, believe their technology might bring the field closer to realising micro-sized robots that can perform practical tasks inside tightly confined spaces.

The research will be published on May 25, 2022, in Science Robotics.

In a statement, project leader John A. Rogers said: “Robotics is an exciting field of research, and the development of microscale robots is a fun topic for academic exploration. 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 tumours - all in minimally invasive procedures.”

“Our technology enables a variety of controlled motion modalities and can walk with an average speed of half its body length per second,” added Yonggang Huang, who led the theoretical work. “This is very challenging to achieve at such small scales for terrestrial robots.”