Tiny Robotics

Very tiny robotics,  collaborative?

A new micro aerial robot based on dielectric elastomer actuators

by Ingrid Fadelli , Tech Xplore

A 0.16 g microscale robot that is powered by a muscle-like soft actuator. Credit: Ren et al.

Micro-sized robots could have countless valuable applications, for instance, assisting humans during search-and-rescue missions, conducting precise surgical procedures, and agricultural interventions. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have recently created a tiny, flying robot based on a class of artificial muscles known as dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs).

This new robot, presented in a paper published in Wiley's Advanced Materials journal, significantly outperformed many DEA-based micro-systems developed in the past. Most notably, the robot can operate at low voltages and has high endurance despite its miniature size.

"Our group has a long-term vision of creating a swarm of insect-like robots that can perform complex tasks such as assisted pollination and collective search-and-rescue," Kevin Chen, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Tech Xplore. "Since three years ago, we have been working on developing aerial robots that are driven by muscle-like soft actuators." ... ' 

Sliding Microbots at Microscale

Things happen differently at small scales.

Using electricity and water, a new kind of motor can slide microrobots into motion
Microhydraulic actuators, thinner than one-third the width of human hair, are proving to be the most powerful and efficient motors at the microscale.

By Kylie Foy | Lincoln Laboratory  MIT News

Look around and you'll likely see something that runs on an electric motor. Powerful and efficient, they keep much of our world moving, everything from our computers to refrigerators to the automatic windows in our cars. But these qualities change for the worse when such motors are shrunk down to sizes smaller than a cubic centimeter.

"At very small scales, you get a heater instead of a motor," said Jakub Kedzierski, staff in MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Chemical, Microsystem, and Nanoscale Technologies Group. Today, no motor exists that is both highly efficient and powerful at microsizes. And that’s a problem, because motors on that scale are needed to put miniaturized systems into motion — microgimbals that can point lasers to a fraction of a degree over thousands of miles, tiny drones that can squeeze into wreckage to find survivors, or even bots that can crawl through the human digestive tract.  ... "