Researchers have developed the smallest walking robot to date, with the aim of making it small enough to interact with light waves and enhance microscopic abilities.
Professor Paul McEuen, of Cornell University in the United States, said a walking robot, small enough to interact with and shape light effectively would take a microscope’s lens and put it directly into the microworld.
“It can perform up-close imaging in ways that a regular microscope never could,” Professor McEuen said.
He said Cornell scientists already hold the world record for the world’s smallest walking robot at 40-70 microns.
Professor Itai Cohen said the team’s new diffractive robots were “going to blow that record out of the water”.
“These robots are 5 microns to 2 microns. They’re tiny. And we can get them to do whatever we want by controlling the magnetic fields driving their motions,” Professor Cohen said.
He said diffractive robotics connect, for the first time, untethered robots with imaging techniques that depended on visible light diffraction, the bending of a light wave when it passes through an opening or around something.
“The imaging technique requires an opening of a size comparable to the light’s wavelength.
“For the optics to work, the robots must be on that scale, and for the robots to reach targets to image, they have to be able to move on their own.”
Professor Cohen said the Cornell team had achieved both objectives.
“The combination of maneuverability, flexibility and sub-diffractive optical technology create a significant advance in the field of robotics.”
Read the full study: Magnetically programmed diffractive robotics.
