Diamagnetic Micro Manipulation (DM3) uses tiny magnets that move under a circuit board, to get the micro-robots to follow a set pattern based on a set of preprogrammed instructions. The system can be set up so just one or a couple of robots are working together, or you can have giant groups of them moving together in sync like some bizarre gymnastics routine. Despite their tiny size, the robots can move up to a foot in a single second, so they can haul around your micro manufacturing supplies pretty swiftly.
SRI says that DM3 can be used for prototyping parts, electronics assembly, biotech lab-on-a-chip experiments, and assembling small mechanical systems in hostile environments. Eventually they plan to scale up the technology, by developing a manufacturing head containing thousands of the little buggers that can build much larger assemblies.
Watch as swarms of micro-robots run around making stuff
Magnetically Actuated Micro-Robots for Advanced Manipulation Applications
Tags: mpegs, robots, the future
9 Responses:
This can only end badly. HAS NOBODY SEEN RUNAWAY?!
I hope nobody has seen Runaway.
WGN used to play it all the time when the Cubs game was rained out. That and Brewster's Millions. And Trading Places.
What an age to be alive.
Do you want replicators? Because this is how you get replicators.
Fucking Wesley Crusher.
Cover your bar with the encoded circuit board. Put the robots on the bottom of the glasses. Drinks are ordered with a smartphone app, and find their customer by tracking Bluetooth signals...
Can they make such encoded circuit boards? I bet they don't have enough accuracy to make one as good as the one they are on. Consolation: freedom from underlord enslavement.
I, for one, welcome our adorably teensy cute robot overlords.
Glue football players on top of those robots!