Researchers from the University of Michigan have indicated that chains of self-assembling particles could serve as electrically activated muscles in tiny robots that are smaller than a grain of sand.

The small robots, called microbots, would be useful in various areas, especially in medicine and manufacturing. However, there are many challenges between current technologies and science fiction possibilities. Two of the main challenges are building the robots and making them mobile.

Michael Solomon, a professor of chemical engineering, said in a statement, “We are inspired by ideas of microscopic robots.” He continued, “They could work together and go places that have never been possible before.”

Solomon and his group showed that some gold plating and an alternating electric field can assist oblong particles form chains that extend approximately 36 percent when the electric field is on.

Sharon Glotzer, the Stuart W. Churchill Professor of Chemical Engineering, whose team developed computer simulations that explained how the chains grew and operated, said, “”What’s really important in the field of nanotechnology right now is not just assembling into structures, but assembling into structures that can change or shape-shift.”

Aayush Shah, a doctoral student in Solomon’s group, said that the innovation that led to the shape-shifting is the addition of the electric field to help control the behavior of the particles. Shah explained, “The particles are like children in a playground. They do interesting things on their own, but it takes a headmaster to make them do interesting things together.”

According to the National Nanotechnology Initiative, nanoscience and nanotechnology are the study and application of extremely small things and can be used across all the other science fields, such as chemistry, biology, physics, materials science, and engineering.