Microbotics

There are already mobile vacuum cleaners on the market that clean rooms automatically. There are also more lawnmower microbots around the gardens that endlessly run across its surface, keeping the grass at a fixed height. In short, there are more and more products that contain a microcontroller and develop tasks and jobs that seem to have some "intelligence". Microcontrollers are integrated circuits whose chip houses a small but complete computer. Depending on the program that it executes, it will process the input information that we provide it and will generate some output results that will govern the actuators of the system. The microbot is a small mobile robot governed by a microcontroller and intended to perform simple tasks that are frequently performed by humans. He cleans, guards, mows the grass, transports parts, inspects pipes, accompanies and helps invalids and even plays football.

History

Microbots were born thanks to the appearance of the microcontroller in the last decade of the XX century, and the appearance of mechanical systems in Microbots on Silicon (MEMS), although many microbots do not use silicon for mechanical components other than sensors. The first research and conceptual design of such small robots took place in the early 1970s in classified research (continuation) for US intelligence agencies. Applications planned at that time included prisoner of war rescue assistance and electronic interception missions. The underlying miniaturization support technologies have not been fully developed at that time, so progress on prototype development was not immediately forthcoming from this initial set of concept calculations and design. As of 2008, the smallest microrobots use a scratch fit drive.

The development of wireless connections, especially Wi-Fi (that is, in home automation networks) has greatly increased the communication capacity of microbots, and consequently their ability to coordinate with other microbots to carry out tasks more complex. In fact, much recent research has focused on microrobot communication, including a 1,024 robot swarm at Harvard University that assembles itself in various forms; and manufacturing microbots at SRI International for the "MicroFactory for macro products" of the DARPA program that can be built from lightweight, high-strength structures.