From tireless assembly lines in bustling factories to the delicate precision of diamond cutting, robots are transforming industries by becoming superhuman coworkers. But what if we shrunk these tireless partners down to the size of a grain of rice? Enter the realm of microrobots, where the boundaries of automation shrink to the scale of a pinhead, opening up a universe of possibilities. Starting with surveying and mapping disasters leading to possible unmanned search and rescue disposable squads. 

Imagine a microrobot defying the limitations of bulky batteries. This is the masterpiece of miniaturisation of Cameron Aubin and his team at Cornell, a micro-machine powered by controlled combustion, its nimble movements driven by tiny explosions. 

Guests

Cameron Aubin – Assistant Professor of Robotics at the University of Michigan

Elizabeth Farrell Helbling – Assistant Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell

Ronald Heisser – Postdoctoral researcher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The post #246 Tiny Robots, Big Moves: The Basics of Microrobot Actuation first appeared on Engineering Matters.