This Autonomous Aquatic Robot Is Smaller Than a Grain of Salt

Researchers have succeeded in developing the smallest fully autonomous robot in history. It measures less than 1 millimeter and can swim underwater for months powered only by light.

Miniaturization has long been a challenge in the history of robotics.

While engineers have made great strides in the miniaturization of electronics in the past few decades, builders of miniature autonomous robots have not been able to meet the goal of getting them under 1 millimeter in size. This is because small arms and legs are fragile and difficult to manufacture. Above all, the circumstances of the laws of physics change in the microscopic world. Instead of gravity and inertia, drag and viscosity become dominant.

Against this backdrop, researchers in the US have announced the results of a study that accomplishes a 40-year-old challenge. A team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan has developed a new ...