By Zoe Elizabeth Buck
McClatchy Newspapers
Gas prices have auto manufacturers rushing to make cars smaller, but Bruce Donald drives vehicles so tiny you need a microscope just to see one.
Donald and his team of Duke University computer scientists have constructed a fleet of fully steerable microrobots small enough to move around on the head of a pin. Robots this small could someday explore brain tissue or manipulate delicate electronics.
The robots are about 250 microns long and 60 microns across. They are thinner than the width of a human hair, and you could line two of them end to end inside the period at the end of this sentence.
They look like spatulas that move around on a charged surface using small, springlike steps similar to an inchworm's crawl. The microrobots have a long, thin arm that can be lowered and used as a pivot for turning, allowing the machines to steer freely in any direction.
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