Microrobots dance on tiny stage

DURHAM, N.C., June 27 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers said they've created microscopic robots that can dance on a surface smaller than a pin head.

Computer scientist Bruce Donald of Duke University said the microelectromechanical system (MEMS) microrobots are almost 100 times smaller than any previous robotic designs of their kind, the university said in a release.

Videos produced by Donald's research team show two microrobots dancing to a Strauss waltz on a dance floor just 1 millimeter across.

"Our work constitutes the first implementation of an untethered, multi-microrobotic system," Donald's team said in a report presented during the Hilton Head Workshop on Solid State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems in South Carolina.