THIS is the moment the world’s tiniest robots form a chilling hivemind swarm like ants – and they could be injected into humans.
Researchers in South Korea have created these creepy robots that can be seen collectively moving large objects, climbing up onto a platform and walking across it.
The eerie footage shows these mini-machines, measuring just 600 micrometres each, or 0.6 of a millimetre, form a swarm and move on their own.
They also manage to join together and topple a 330-milligram cuboid in the video and lift a 160-milligram obstacle from underneath it.
The team at Hanyang University in Seoul believe their swarm, which is powered by a rotating magnetic field, could tackle challenging tasks in difficult environments.
This could include being put into humans to assist with invasive surgeries like artery blockages.
Jeong Jae Wie, part of the Department of Organic and Nano Engineering at Hanyang University, was surprised at how strongly the swarm is able to work together.
He said: “The high adaptability of microrobot swarms to their surroundings and high autonomy level in swarm control were surprising.
“We developed a cost-effective mass production method using onsite replica molding and magnetization, ensuring uniform geometry and magnetization profiles for consistent performance.
“While the study’s results are promising, the swarms will need higher levels of autonomy before they will be ready for real-world applications.”
The cooperative approach makes robots more resilient to failure, as even if some fall short, the others continue their programmed actions until enough succeed.
They are made of epoxy embedded with ferromagnetic neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) particles.
This allows them to respond to magnetic fields on their own and form a variety of patterns to carry out different jobs by self-assembling on their own.
Adjusting the magnetization angle allows for precise control over the swarm’s behaviour, enhancing its ability to perform complex tasks collectively.
Tests have been carried out to observe the swarm’s ability to carry weight.
In one example, the swarm formed a raft that floated on water and wrapped around a pill weighing 2,000 times more than each robot.
This could allow rescue teams to reach people trapped in a body of water.
The “engineered skin tissue” takes a sample of human skin cells and grows them in the lab.
The majority of the human skin used to harvest these cells comes from extra skin removed during surgeries.
In order to aid in the attachment of the layer of lab-grown skin, the team created special perforations in the robot’s face and applied a unique collagen gel.
Skin can be applied to almost any form of surface by carefully designing tiny openings.
On land, the swarm successfully transported cargo 350 times heavier than the individual robots.
But the help they can provide humans is a bit trickier.
Currently, the magnetic microrobot swarms require external magnetic control.
This means they don’t possess the ability to autonomously navigate complex or confined spaces, such as real arteries.
The team highlights that future research will focus on improving the autonomy of these microrobot swarms.
This research would include the development of real-time feedback control for their movements and trajectories, which would allow them to gain an even more precise control over their futuristic creations.
