Developed by researchers at Northwestern University, this tiny robotic crab is so small it can stand on the edge of a penny. Not the side of a penny, the EDGE. Now that’s small. So small there could be a whole army of them in your bed right now, and you wouldn’t even know it. Sweet dreams!
The robocrab is covered in a fine glass coating, which, thanks to the crab’s incredibly small size (it’s only half a millimeter wide), is able to be quickly heated using a laser, which then rapidly cools. When this is done in rapid succession, scanning the laser either left to right or right to left, the crab will walk in that direction at a rate of about half a body length per second. No word if it’s capable of pinching yet.
It’s only a matter of time until we’re all filled with tiny robotic crabs scuttling around inside us, monitoring our vitals and performing other medical tasks to make us live longer. And I’ll laugh and briefly ponder just how primitive technology was in the early 2020s while I blow out the candles on my 190th birthday cake.
[via TechCrunch]
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