Dancing Micro-Robots Waltz on a Pin's Head

coondoggie writes to mention that Duke University researchers have created micro-robots and made them dance to their tune. With dimensions measured in microns, these tiny bots were made to waltz to the music of Strauss on the head of a pin just one millimeter across. "In another sequence, the devices pivot in a precise fashion whenever their boom-like steering arms are drawn down to the surface by an electric charge. This response resembles the way dirt bikers turn by extending a boot heel, researchers said. The researchers said they have also been able to get five of the devices to group-maneuver in cooperation under the same control system.Known as microelectromechanical system (MEMS) microrobots, the devices are of suitable scale for Lilliputian tasks such as moving around the interiors of laboratories-on-a-chip."

They can't hear the music

[EmbeddedJanitor]

They're too small, relative to the wavelength, to hear. So how can they be dancing to it ?

technically

[bornyesterday]

They simply twirled to the music. Waltzing is has a 1-2-3-pause beat pattern. Just because they danced TO a waltz does not mean that they waltzed.

Where's the movie of the waltz on a pin's head?

[heroine]

The blogger keeps referring to dancing robots, links to a home video of an amateur recital of something, links to some robot videos from years ago, but nothing here showing robots dancing a waltz on a pin's head.

is it me, or is it materializing?

[Bananatree3]

Now we have micron sized robots. Just last week we had announcement of a robotic arm within spitting distance of human dexterity. We have airplane-converts to car almost here for the consumer. An electric car that can get as much mileage as a gas car and still do freeway speeds (Tesla Roadster). We've got plugin hybrids within a year or two at most hitting the high end consumer market (commercial plugins), that will drop gas consumption at large scales.

We live in exciting times.