North western University engineers have created a remote-controlled robot that can bend, twist, crawl, walk, turn, and jump and is only half a millimeter broad. Furthermore, the crab-shaped robot accomplishes this task without the need of actuators, motors, hydraulics, or power. Lasers are used to control the world’s smallest remote-controlled robot.
The developers used a special shape-memory alloy that, when heated, turns into a specific shape in its “memory.” The findings were reported in the journal Science Robotics in an article titled “Submillimeter-scale multi material terrestrial robots.” A thin glass layer squeezes the alloy into a slightly deformed shape. According to the team’s press release, when a scanning laser beam is focused on different portions of the crab’s body, those parts heat up and deform into their pre-deformed shape. As the hot portions cool, the alloy returns to its deformed shape.
The peekytoe crab’s assembly was inspired by a child’s pop-up book, which Rogers and Huang developed eight years ago. They began by bonding premade flat shapes to a slightly stretched rubber substrate. The stretched substrate buckles in a controlled manner as it relaxes, resulting in a pop-up action. The prefab crab-shaped structures in this case caused the substrate to spring up into a three-dimensional crab shape.
The researchers chose a peekytoe crab design for the sheer pleasure of watching a tiny robot squirm like a crab, but their three-dimensional printing technology could be used to replicate any species or shape, according to the researchers. During this research, they also created millimeter-sized robots that looked like inchworms, crickets, and beetles.
The micro robot’s locomotion is controlled by its elastic body. Unlike many other robots, this crab’s mobility is not aided by complicated hardware or electrical components. It’s comprised of a stretchy alloy that retains its shape. The alloy is squeezed into a somewhat distorted shape by a thin glass layer. According to the team’s news release, when researchers focus a scanning laser beam at different spots on the crab’s body, those parts heat up and turn into their pre-deformed shape. The alloy returns to its distorted shape as the hot areas cool.
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