World’s smallest autonomous robots are 'smaller than a grain of salt,' cost one penny apiece — researchers expect new micron-scale fully-programmable robots to be used in medicine, microscale manufacturing, and other areas

The world’s smallest fully programmable, autonomous robots .

Fully programmable, autonomous robots “smaller than a grain of salt” have been developed in a collaborative effort between research teams from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan. Claimed to be the world’s smallest of their kind, these nanoscale robots are expected to find applications in medicine, microscale manufacturing, and other areas. Remarkably, the researchers contend that these robots will cost only one penny each to manufacture.

Penn Engineering was responsible for the physical structure and features of these microscopic robots, while Michigan scientists gave the robots their ‘brains.’ The Michigan lab involved in this collaboration also holds the record for creating the world’s smallest computer.