Robots are getting tiny. Cornell has just invented the world’s smallest walking robot.
From my latest at Forbes:
Researchers at Cornell University have built the world’s smallest walking robot, at just two to five microns across. The robot is so small that over 3o,ooo of them could fit on the sharp point of a needle. That tiny size means potentially huge capabilities for medical uses and material sciences since it is small enough to interact with waves of light at sizes comparable with the light’s wavelength.
“A walking robot that’s small enough to interact with and shape light effectively takes a microscope’s lens and puts it directly into the microworld,” says team leader Paul McEuen, an emeritus professor of physical science at Cornell. “It can perform up-close imaging in ways that a regular microscope never could.”