Robot Centipedes About to be Put to Work

Small robot insects looking like and built like centipedes may be released into specific circumstances which require certain tasks to be accomplished.

The new thing about these microrobots is their ability to carry much more than their own weight, which could ultimately lead to them being independent. That means they may be able to carry a power source.

That leads to another challenge: There really aren't any power sources out there at this time which would all them to run much more than about 10 minutes. If that can be overcome, some of the potential tasks they could be sent to do would be more realistic, and done in a efficient time frame.

All microrobots at this time, including these new ones from the University of Washington, are only able to move at a snails' pace of about 3 feet an hour. Some are much slower than that, which could be detrimental to their purpose if time is a factor in their missions.

The big advancement in these little robots is the ability to carry far more than their weight. That provides the potential for a power source to be created which would allow it to operate for much longer periods of time.