Sandia Mini-Robot Turns On Dime, Parks On Nickel
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 28 of September , 2007 at 3:06 am
At 1/4 cubic inch in volume and a weight of less than 1 ounce, these mini-robots being developed by Sandia National Labs may be some of the smallest autonomous untethered robots in existence. They’re powered by 3 watch batteries, and have tracked drive systems, an 8K ROM processor, a temperature sensor, and optionally a miniature camera, microphone, communication system, and chemical micro-sensor. The bodies of the robots are created through rapid-prototyping and are mostly constrained by the size of the batteries required to power them (meaning that they’ll shrink further with improvements in battery technology). With a top speed of only 20 inches per minute, each bot may not be able to get very far very fast, but they’re designed to be used in swarms to accomplish larger and more complex tasks. Video of the mini-bot driving over loose change after the jump.
[ Sandia Mini-Robots ] VIA [ Spatial Robots ]
Comments (3)
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Comment by bill
Made Monday, 1 of October , 2007 at 8:21 am
dude – this story is about three years old. the youtube video might be newish, though. I have the same picture on an entry on my site from 2004. It’s cool, though, even now.
Comment by Evan Ackerman
Made Monday, 1 of October , 2007 at 12:49 pm
Bill: You caught me :). I looked around a bit, and couldn’t find any updated information from Sandia, but I thought it was worth a mention anyway.
Comment by BOND
Made Sunday, 23 of December , 2007 at 4:19 pm
Uau, muito interessante…
Na UNB de BrasÃlia -Brasil tem um projeto bem parecido!
Cool!!
Comment by olly
Made Wednesday, 16 of December , 2009 at 8:41 pm
are these openly available to buy?