Researchers from Washington State University (WSU) are claiming to have developed two insect-like robots — a mini-bug and a water strider — that are reportedly the smallest, lightest and fastest functional micro-robots ever created.

The researchers are eyeing these robots for applications including artificial pollination, search and rescue, environmental monitoring, micro-fabrication or robotic-assisted surgery.

Source: WSU

According to the researchers, the mini-bug weighs roughly 8 milligrams while the water strider weighs around 55 milligrams; both can reportedly travel at speeds of 6 millimeters per second.

Making this possible are the robots’ tiny actuators, which enable them to move. The researchers employed a new fabrication technique to create actuators that are less than a milligram — reportedly the smallest ever designed.

The researchers explained that they used a shape memory alloy that enables the tiny actuators to change shapes when heated. Further, the alloys do not possess any moving components, unlike a typical motor that would enable a robot to move.

Although shape memory alloys are not generally used for large-scale robotic movement due to their slow speed, the WSU robots’ actuators are made of two shape memory alloy wires that are 1/1,000 of an inch in diameter. When introduced to a small amount of current, the wires will easily heat up and cool down. This will enable the robots to flap their fins or move their feet at as much as 40 times per second. Additionally, during testing, the actuators were also reportedly able to lift more than 150 times their own weight.

An article detailing the robots, “A New 1-mg Fast Unimorph SMA-Based Actuator for Microrobotics,” will be presented at the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society's International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.