Cornell researchers in physics and engineering have created the smallest walking robot yet. Its mission: to be tiny enough to interact with waves of visible light and still move independently, so that it can maneuver to specific locations—in a tissue sample, for instance—to take images and measure forces at the scale of some of the body's smallest structures.
"A walking robot that's small enough to interact with and shape light effectively takes a microscope's lens and puts it directly into the microworld," said Paul McEuen, the John A. Newman Professor of Physical Science Emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), who led the team. "It can perform up-close imaging in ways that a regular microscope never could."
To read more, click here.