By Ryan Whitwam
We’ve seen tiny robots before, but never like this. Researchers from Cornell have created the first microscopic robots that operate without any form of external control. These nanomachines have all the hardware they need on board, including a basic electronic brain. They just need a little solar energy, and off they go. They’re currently very limited devices, but the designers envision almost unlimited applications.
The research, which was led by postdoctoral researcher Michael Reynolds, built on research that was already happening at Cornell. Previously, Cornell set the world record for the smallest walking robot, but the new version is infinitely smarter. Reynolds developed robots between 100 and 250 micrometers across with an electronic circuit that controls the robot. That eliminates the need for an external control mechanism like heat or magnetism, which is required for other tiny robots. Reynolds says those robots are more like marionettes than true robots.
The brain inside these robots is a simple complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) clock circuit. It contains just a thousand transistors, which is nothing compared with the billions that exist in today’s full-scale computer processors. The purpose of the circuit is to generate phase-shifted square waves that control the walking gait of the robot, which it does automatically when the integrated photovoltaic cells are exposed to light. The team tested three different designs with two, four, and six legs. The fastest among them can walk at a blistering 10 micrometers per second — that’s pretty fast given the microscopic scale.
Continue reading… “Cornell Scientists Create Microscopic Robots With Electronic ‘Brains’”
