The bigger picture: Smallest robotic crab

ENGINEERS from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, have developed the smallest.-ever remote-controlled walking robot - a tiny peekytoe crab. Just, a half-millimetre wide, the minute crabs can bend, twist, crawl, walk, turn, and even jump. The researchers also developed millimetre-sized robots resembling inch worms, crickets, and beetles. Although the work is exploratory at. this point., researchers believe their technology might, bring about, micro-sized robots that, can perform practical tasks inside tightly confined spaces. The research was published in the journal Science Robotics. The robot, is constructed from a shape-memory alloy material that, transforms to its ‘remembered’ shape when heated. In this case, the researchers used a scanned laser beam to rapidly heat, the robot, at. different, targeted locations across its body. A thin coating of glass elastically returns the corresponding part, to its deformed shape upon cooling. As the robot, changes from one phase to another - deformed to remembered shape and back again - it. creates locomotion.