"It's tens of times smaller in length, and thousands of times smaller in mass than previous untethered microrobots that are controllable," says Donald. "When we say 'controllable,' it means it's like a car; you can steer it anywhere on a flat surface, and drive it wherever you want to go. It doesn't drive on wheels, but crawls like a silicon inchworm, making tens of thousands of 10-nanometer steps every second. It turns by putting a silicon 'foot' out and pivoting like a motorcyclist skidding around a tight turn."Future applications for micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) include inspecting and making repairs to an integrated circuit, exploring hazardous environments after a hazardous chemical explosion, or involving biotechnology, perhaps to manipulate cells or tissues.The researchers’ paper describes a machine that measures 60 x 250 µm (one micrometer is 1,000th of a millimeter). It integrates power delivery, locomotion, communication, and a controllable steering system—the combination of which reportedly has never been achieved before in a machine this small. Donald said this discovery ushers in a new generation of even tinier microrobots."Machines this small tend to stick to everything they touch, the way the sand sticks to your feet after a day at the beach,” says Craig McGray, who earned a Ph.D. in computer science working on this project in Donald's lab. “So we built these microrobots without any wheels or hinged joints, which must slide smoothly on their bearings. Instead, these robots move by bending their bodies like caterpillars. At very small scales, this machine is surprisingly fast."The prototype is steerable and untethered, so it moves freely on a surface without the wires or rails that constrain the motion of previously developed microrobots.Donald explains that this is the smallest robot that transduces force, is untethered, and is engaged in its own locomotion. The robot contains two independent microactuators, one for forward motion and one for turning. It's not pre-programmed to move, he says. It is teleoperated, powered by the grid of electrodes it walks on. The charge in the electrodes not only provides power, it also supplies the robot's instructions that allow it to move freely over the electrodes, unattached to them.
