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+--- Thread: Research World’s smallest programmable robots perform tasks (/thread-19394.html)
World’s smallest programmable robots perform tasks - C C - Dec 15, 2025
https://news.umich.edu/worlds-smallest-programmable-robots-perform-tasks/
INTRO: The world’s smallest fully programmable, autonomous robots have debuted at the University of Pennsylvania, sporting a brain developed at the University of Michigan.
These microscopic swimming machines can independently sense and respond to their surroundings, operate for months, and cost just a penny each.
Barely visible to the naked eye, each robot measures about 0.2 by 0.3 by 0.05 millimeters, operating at the scale of many microorganisms. They can be programmed to move in complex patterns, sense local temperatures, and adjust their paths in response.
These light-powered robots, developed with primary support from the National Science Foundation, could advance medicine by monitoring the health of individual cells and aid manufacturing by helping construct microscale devices, the researchers say.
“We’ve made autonomous robots 10,000 times smaller,” said Marc Miskin, assistant professor in electrical and systems engineering at Penn and senior author of a pair of studies published in Science Robotics and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “That opens up an entirely new scale for programmable robots.”
The robots can move in complex patterns and even travel in coordinated groups, much like a school of fish. And because their propulsion system has no moving parts, the robots are extremely durable—easy to transfer with a micropipette and capable of swimming for months... (MORE - details, no ads)
PAPERS:
https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adu8009
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2500526122