tiny robot

MIT engineers have built a tiny swimming robot roughly the size of a stick of gum, driven by a single sheet of living mouse muscle tissue less than 15 micrometres thick. Blue light at 470 nanometres makes the muscle cells contract, bending gel fins that steer the robot through a maze at about four body lengths per minute. The work highlights how biohybrid robotics could one day produce miniature swimmers for medical or research uses.

Researchers have unveiled a tiny robot that extends its battery life by harvesting energy through a skin-like material on its feet. The technology could allow small robots to operate for longer without recharging, a persistent limitation in miniature robotics. Details of how the power is generated and how much it improves endurance have not been widely reported yet.