If you’ve ever seen an ant carrying food on its back, you know that insects are much stronger than their small size. However, robots at that scale have not yet reached their full potential. “One of the challenges was the engine. Motors and pumps don’t work well when you shrink them to this size,” said research group member Dr. Cameron Aubin. So far, researchers have tried to address the challenge using bespoke mechanisms, most of which have been tied to their power sources, usually electricity.
“Combustion power allows our robots to do many things that robots of this scale have not been able to do before. They can navigate very difficult terrain, clear obstacles, jump to incredible heights, and also move at very high speeds,” Aubin added.
The paper published by the group to which Prof. Gat belongs was recently published in the journal, Science. Congratulations!
To the article on the Cornell University website >>
Photo: The tiny bug-sized robot developed by the research group at Cornell Tech.
