Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
The above image is a shot of Georgia Tech's latest robot posed next to a penny. The 3D-printed bot is roughly two millimeters in length — or about the size of the world's smallest ants, per the school. The tiny devices are designed to move using vibration from a variety of sources, ranging from ultrasound to more traditional speakers.
With the proper source, the bristles allow them to move four times their own size in roughly a second by moving the legs up and down. Different-sized legs react differently, responding to a variety of different frequencies. The actuators that generate the vibration are outside of the robot, however, as batteries small enough to be housed on their bodies simply don't exist.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/17/georgia-techs-ant-sized-micro-robots-move-through-vibration/
(Score: 2) by bart9h on Friday July 26 2019, @05:10AM
This is just a fancier version of the Bristlebot [evilmadscientist.com] (video [youtube.com]).