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Tuesday, May 04, 2010

#MEMS microbots square off in Alaska


Mobile robots seems to be one of those fields that is always on-the-way, but never quite gets here unless you count Roomba and few experimental models. Maybe micro-mobile robot will make the grade--at the very least they appear to have captured the interest of a new generation of robot makers who are competing this week in Alaska. Look for mobile micro-robots in medical and other tiny application areas within five years. R.C.J.


MEMS-based microbots weighing only a few nanograms and measuring only a few hundred microns long will battle it out this week in the Mobile Microrobotics Challenge (MMC) at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Anchorage, Alaska. The MMC, a product of collaboration between the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society to create the Mobile Microrobotics Challenge, features seven teams competing with micron-scale robots on three tasks.
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