pic nicked from here
Engineering researchers at the University of Waterloo claim to have created the world’s first flying microbot that can manipulate objects for microscale jobs. It can drag and drop the eensy-teensy, polka-dot bikinis that our fingers are too big and clumsy to deal with. It’s also magnetically levitated.
Mir Behrad Khamesee, director of UW’s Maglev (Magnetically Levitated) Microrobotics Laboratory says:
“We are the first in the world to make such a floating robot equipped with microgrippers. It can enter virtually any space and can be operated in a sealed enclosure by a person outside, which makes it useful for handling biohazardous materials or working in vacuum chambers and clean rooms.”
I assume he means that it can work in clean rooms, not that it can clean rooms. But who knows? Maybe enough of these little creatures could move an old pizza box. In the meantime, we’ll have to be content with microsurgery.
