A recent Medgadget article discussed an innovative new medical robot that resembles a crab and measures just half a millimeter side. The tiny remote controlled crab robots were developed by engineers at Northwestern University, and they’re capable of jumping, twisting, bending, turning, and walking. Perhaps the most impressive feature is that they require no electricity to do these tasks. The robots are made of a shape-memory alloy that changes shape when heated via laser, and returns to the original shape when the heating stops. A video that shows the tiny crab robots in action can be seen here.
