Small Talk for Robots

When the topic of collaboration between robots comes up, some people see a bright future where these machines will take care of all the monotonous chores that we do not want to do, while others think such developments will bring about the end of humanity. The reality — at least for the time being — is nowhere near these extremes. Robotic collaboration is not going to dramatically change our lives yet, but when done properly, it can give rise to some useful new technologies all the same.

Consider the tiny collaborative robots recently developed by a team of engineers at the Chemnitz University of Technology, for instance. Called smartlets, these aqueous robots are so small that you could fit a dozen of them on your fingertip. Yet they are packed with technology ranging from processors to sensors, actuators, and an optical communication system. And that communication system allows the smartlets to interact with one another in a swarm, and even come together to form more complex structures.

When fully assembled, the robots take the shape of a cube, but they are fabricated on a flat wafer. They fold up in an origami-like process due to selective etching of the material and swelling of hydrogels that are incorporated into the design.

A custom silicon chiplet, called a lablet, that was previously developed by members of the team serves as the onboard microprocessor, running all of the robot’s logic routines. Power for the device is harvested via tiny photovoltaic cells. Optical communication is achieved by using micro-LEDs and photodiodes to send and receive data, which the lablet decodes. Actuation was achieved through a process called hydrolysis, which splits water into its constituent gases. As the gases bubble up from its electrodes, the robot becomes buoyant and floats in water.

What can you do with a swarm of tiny smartlets? Well, they can’t do your chores, and they certainly cannot exterminate humanity, either. But they might prove to be useful for tasks like monitoring the quality of a body of water, or — perhaps a bit further in the future — running medical diagnostic tests. The team is also exploring the possibility that more complex behaviors might emerge through cooperation. Even if none of these applications ultimately pan out, the fact that so much useful tech was packed into a square millimeter is still impressive.