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Image Credits: Northwestern University / Northwestern University
Posted on 05/25/2022 4:30:22 PM PDT by BenLurkin
How small is Northwestern University’s robot crab? It’s sit-on-the-side-of-a-penny small. It’s half a millimeter wide — making it even smaller than a common flea.
Researchers behind it have determined a fairly simple way to control it remotely — when heat is applied to the system, its thin coating of glass deforms the system’s shape, creating locomotion in the process.
Using a laser, the robot can be quickly heated, owing to its tiny surface area. When the laser is turned off, it rapidly cools. Doing so in quick succession causes the robot to walk. To make it go left, the laser scans right to left. To go right, the laser does the opposite.
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Image Credits: Northwestern University / Northwestern University
The team says it built the robot in a manner similar to creating pop-up books. According to Northwestern, first, the team fabricated precursors to the walking crab structures in flat, planar geometries. Then they bonded these precursors onto a slightly stretched rubber substrate. When the stretched substrate is relaxed, a controlled buckling process occurs that causes the crab to “pop up” into precisely defined three-dimensional forms.
(Excerpt) Read more at techcrunch.com ...
I, for one, welcome our new overlords.
Pretty cool but the U.S. Mint does not make “pennies”. It’s called a one cent piece.
They will use these robotic crabs to infest our crotches. No amount of blue ointment will help. These fiends must be stopped.
How many of them does it take to harvest a garden or cook a grilled cheese sandwich?
Not much of a “robot”...
I think Clarancebeaks identified the intended use.
Until they get it to walk into your ear and plant the GPS device. I’m good though. Tin foil hats stop lasers - right!?
...never seem to get a lot.
Rofl! I guess that leaves the razor-matches-ice pick method.
To deliver unwanted vaxxes.
I want an army of them with little mops on their feets to clean under the fridge.
If I was young man.. I’d be thrilled to wine and dine the tiny crab as a romantic possibility. By comparison, right? Who are they supposed to go out with? Women?
Try saying go out with women without laughing or barfing. Tough to do.
Big enough to act like a mechanical tickband carry a virus ...
Oh, good idea. I have yet to find an easy was to clean those fridge coils.
mechanical tick
Like the joke about the whiz-bang wristwatch.
https://www.poddys.com/jokes/jokes_115.htm
“Don’t forget the batteries.”
How do you get the tiny pinchers to work, so it can rip your flesh open and crawl inside?
They could do that!
Zip your pants up and the laser light can’t reach your pubic crabs. End of itch.
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