With all these other advances in science and technology, it should come as no surprise that the field of robotics moves just as quickly. In January 2024, Washington State University announced that their school of mechanical and materials engineering had created two insect-like robots. The smallest of their kind in the world, the smaller of the two, called minibug, weighs in at just 8 milligrams, while the other, modeled after a water strider, weighs in at 55 milligrams. What’s most impressive is their movement speed, with each of them able to move about 6 mm/second, which is definitely a lot slower than biological insects but much faster than any of their micro robotic peers.
Tiny Actuators
The secret of their speed is Tiny actuators, using a new technique, were shrunk down until they weighed less than a single milligram. The way that these operate is by using shape memory. Alloys are metals that can change shape when heated but return to their original shape after cooling back down. Each actuator contains two wires made from this memory alloy. In the case of the Strider, the wires can be heated up and cooled down rapidly using a small electric current, allowing the mechanical parts of the robot to move incredibly quickly. It can flap its fins more than 40 times per second, and the researchers aren’t done there; they’ve spent time studying the insects they’ve used as models and identified things that make them quicker.
Robot-Assisted Surgery
They aim to incorporate this feature in future iterations. Creating a super tiny battery to enable these mini machines to function without a power source is also on their to-do list. Robots of this size have endless applications, such as robot-assisted surgery, environmental monitoring, and material manufacturing. One day, we hope to use swarms of mini robots like these for artificial pollination in areas where plants are naturally difficult to pollinate.
Dr. Abid Hussain Nawaz
Ph.D
