@javilopen
✨ Researchers built a microrobot smaller than a grain of salt that can sense, compute, and move in liquid. Everyone is obsessing over humanoids but THIS is the real robotics future → robots you can literally lose in a sneeze. It packs onboard computation, sensors, and propulsion at submillimeter scale → powered by light via tiny solar cells. Why this matters: • Miniaturization has been stuck for decades because compute and power do not scale nicely • This one actually closes the loop: sense → decide → act, not just "a tiny thing that wiggles" • Built like a microchip, so in theory it can be fabricated in parallel and become very cheap per unit Ok but reality check because people will hype this into "nanobots inside your blood tomorrow": • It is still a lab setup, with external light and controlled conditions • The compute is tiny and slow compared to any normal device • "World’s smallest" depends on definitions, there are smaller micro machines that do less • Also, the arXiv preprint is older → mainstream press just noticed now Still → this is exactly how sci fi turns into engineering. Swarm microrobots will be a thing.