Smallest autonomous mini-robot

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25 April 2001 News

What may be the world's smallest robot - it 'turns on a dime and parks on a nickel' - is being developed by researchers at the US Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories. At 4 cm³ and weighing less than 28 g, it is possibly the smallest autonomous untethered robot ever created, according to developers Ed Heller and Doug Adkins.

Powered by three watch batteries, it rides on track wheels and consists of an 8K ROM processor, temperature sensor and two motors that drive the wheels.

"This could be the robot of the future," says Ed Heller, "They will be able to work together in swarms, like insects. The miniature robots will be able to go into locations too small for their larger relatives."

The mini-robot has already manoeuvered its way through a field of dimes and nickels and travels at about half a metre a minute. The robots' small size is as a result of new electronics packaging techniques. Commercially available unpackaged parts were assembled onto a simple multichip module on a glass substrate.

"Previous small robots consisted of packaged electronic parts that were more bulky and took up valuable space. By eliminating the packaging and using electronic components in die form, we reduced the size of the robots electronics considerably," Heller says.

Adkins, who developed the mechanical design for the new mini-robot, says a new rapid prototyping technique was used to form the device's body. Called stereolithography, it lays down very thin polymer deposits that are cured by a laser. The material 'grows' with each layer, and can be formed in complex shapes, he said.

Over the next few years Heller and Adkins expect to add either infrared or radio wireless two-way communication capability to the robots, as well as miniature video cameras, microphones, and chemical micro-sensors.

www.sandia.gov

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