Scholarlink

<p>Microrobotics has traditionally relied on macroscopic control systems to direct the behaviour of microscopic entities that are too small to act autonomously. Yet in many applications, autonomous action is essential: human intervention is often too imprecise, remote or slow to be practical. In this Review, we illuminate the field of modular microrobotics, focusing on the opportunities and obstacles in achieving on-board control and autonomy. Advances in scalable methods to integrate electronics into 3D microscopic structures have finally enabled mass production and systematic downscaling of microrobots (≤1 mm), with the convergence of information processing and material fabrication technologies making on-board electronics feasible at this size, even within complex forms with interior vessels. These developments promise to disrupt current approaches based as a whole&#xa0;on&#xa0;larger, externally controlled marionette microrobots by delivering true microrobots down to the scale of biological cells. Self-assembling autonomous microrobots equipped with high-density on-board electronics are now technologically within reach, bringing learning capabilities and the coevolution of morphology and control to modular microrobotic systems.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Modular microrobotics transitioning from remote to on-board electronic control

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年1月28日

查看全文
  • John S. McCaskill,
  • Vineeth K. Bandari,
  • Saskia Schmidt,
  • Oliver G. Schmidt

摘要

Microrobotics has traditionally relied on macroscopic control systems to direct the behaviour of microscopic entities that are too small to act autonomously. Yet in many applications, autonomous action is essential: human intervention is often too imprecise, remote or slow to be practical. In this Review, we illuminate the field of modular microrobotics, focusing on the opportunities and obstacles in achieving on-board control and autonomy. Advances in scalable methods to integrate electronics into 3D microscopic structures have finally enabled mass production and systematic downscaling of microrobots (≤1 mm), with the convergence of information processing and material fabrication technologies making on-board electronics feasible at this size, even within complex forms with interior vessels. These developments promise to disrupt current approaches based as a whole on larger, externally controlled marionette microrobots by delivering true microrobots down to the scale of biological cells. Self-assembling autonomous microrobots equipped with high-density on-board electronics are now technologically within reach, bringing learning capabilities and the coevolution of morphology and control to modular microrobotic systems.