Archimedes pointed out that with a lever he could move the world.
He most likely would have been surprised to learn that a team of six microrobots, weighing just 3.5 ounces in total, could pull a car weighing 3,900 pounds.
A group of researchers at the Biomimetics and Dexterous Manipulation Laboratory at Stanford University has been exploring the limits of friction in the design of tiny robots that have the ability to pull thousands of times their weight, wander like gecko lizards on vertical surfaces or mimic bats.
Now they have pushed biomimicry in a new direction. They have taken their inspiration from tiny ants that work as teams to move massive objects. In this case, they are not just taking ideas from nature — the movie “Big Hero 6” made a great deal of what swarms of microrobots could do, including tossing cars.
The researchers’ approach is counterintuitive. Rather than striking powerful blows like a football player making a tackle or a jackhammer, they have focused on synchronizing the smooth application of very tiny forces. The microrobots work in concert, if slowly.
The researchers observed that the ants get great cooperative force by each using three of their six legs simultaneously.
Learn more: Modeled After Ants, Teams of Tiny Robots Can Move 2-Ton Car
The Latest on: Microrobots
[google_news title=”” keyword=”microrobots” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Microrobots
- Health Spotlight: Nanobots to the rescueon May 14, 2024 at 4:26 pm
The bots are made out of polymer materials that are biocompatible using a technology similar to 3-D printing. They look like small rockets.
- Swarms of microrobots remove microplastics and bacteria from wateron May 13, 2024 at 10:29 am
In future, micro-robots will be able to filter out microplastics and bacteria from the sea that are harmful to humans and the environment.
- Researchers build microrobots to remove microplastics from wateron May 12, 2024 at 7:10 am
When old food packaging, discarded children’s toys and other mismanaged plastic waste break down into microplastics, they become even harder to clean up ...
- Microrobots tested as clean-up crew for polluted waterson May 10, 2024 at 4:00 pm
Researchers have pioneered the use of innovative microrobots designed to tackle and effectively manage microplastic pollution.
- Swarms of Miniature Robots Clean Up Microplastics and Microbes, Simultaneouslyon May 8, 2024 at 5:00 pm
In a study in ACS Nano, researchers describe swarms of microscale robots (microrobots) that captured bits of plastic and bacteria from water. Afterward, the bots were decontaminated and reused. Watch ...
- Magnetic microrobot swarms clean water of microplastics and bacteriaon May 8, 2024 at 6:02 am
Microplastics are one of the biggest environmental and health risks faced by our generation. Now, researchers have developed swarms of tiny robots, or microrobots, that not only microplastics from ...
- Swarms of miniature robots clean up microplastics and microbes, simultaneously (video)on May 7, 2024 at 5:00 pm
When old food packaging, discarded children’s toys and other mismanaged plastic waste break down into microplastics, they become even harder to clean up from oceans and waterways. These tiny bits of ...
- Best Life: Nanobots to the rescue: The future of medical Microbotson May 6, 2024 at 5:57 am
They’re called Microbots, also known as nanorobots. They’re microscopic in scale and thousands of them could be delivered by swallowing a single pill. They could one day provide life-saving ...
- Celebrating National Inventors Monthon May 1, 2024 at 8:00 am
As the world celebrates human ingenuity during National Inventors Month in May, UDaily spoke with Das about her journey toward invention. Q: Tell us about your patented invention on microrobots for ...
- A rechargeable nanotorch: Afterglow luminescence imaging tracks cell-based microrobots in real timeon April 14, 2024 at 5:00 pm
This allows the routes taken through the body by microrobots to be tracked in real time. In addition, it can be "recharged" non-invasively with near-infrared (NIR) light in a non-contact manner.
via Bing News
