This is so cool! Researchers at Stanford University's Biomimetic Dexterous Manipulation Laboratory have cribbed from two animals—geckos and ants—to create "super strong microTug microrobots." As we've seen, ants can do impressive things when they all team up, and their daisy-chaining behavior wasn't lost on the researchers. Thus the team first tried to have insect-like, six- and eight-legged microbots pull heavy weights by working together.

That didn't work, and the problem was because the tiny feet of the 'bots don't provide enough surface area to get good traction. Hence the team gave each 'bot an adhesive base inspired by gecko toes, replaced their legs with two wheels, enabled the 'bots to raise or lower the stick-pad base in place, and equipped them with mechanical winches. Check this out:

All we need to do is combine these ant-bots with the Winbag air shims and we can put these guys to work leveling windows and installing cabinets.

My favorite part about these tiny 'bots is, no matter how strong they are, we can still crush them with our feet. That's easier than scrabbling for some remote kill switch if they get out of line.

Via Gizmodo