A WALKING SILICON MICRO-ROBOT

The first walking batch fabricated silicon micro-robot able to carry loads has been developed and investigated. The robot consists of arrays of movable robust silicon legs having a length of 0.5 or 1 mm. Motion is obtained by thermal actuation of robust polyimide joint actuators using electrical heating. Successful walking experiments have been performed with the 15x5 mm sized micro-robot. Walking speeds up to 6 mm/s with high load capacity has been achieved. The robot could carry a maximum external load of 2500 mg on its back (> 30 times the dead-weight of the robot).

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