Microscopic robots that sense, think, act, and compute

Abstract

Although miniaturization has been a goal in robotics for nearly 40 years, roboticists have struggled to access submillimeter dimensions without making sacrifices to onboard information processing because of the unique physics of the microscale. Consequently, microrobots often lack the key features that distinguish their macroscopic cousins from other machines, namely, on-robot systems for decision-making, sensing, feedback, and programmable computation. Here, we take up the challenge of building a robot comparable in size to a single-celled paramecium that can sense, think, and act using onboard systems for computation, sensing, memory, locomotion, and communication. Built massively in parallel with fully lithographic processing, these microrobots can execute digitally defined algorithms and autonomously change behavior in response to their surroundings. Combined, these results pave the way for general-purpose microrobots that can be programmed many times in a simple setup and can work together to carry out tasks without supervision in uncertain environments.