China boasts of creating a robot that can fly, run and transform like 'Transformers'

Shape-shifting microrobot developed by research team at Tsinghua University - Photo: GLOBAL TIMES

The Global Times reported on April 20 that a Chinese research team has successfully developed a wireless micro robot, said to be the world's smallest and lightest, with the ability to transform its shape flexibly. This device is expected to replace humans in many complex and dangerous tasks.

According to the research team from Tsinghua University, the robot is 9cm long, weighs 25 grams, and can operate flexibly on the ground and in the air, with a maximum speed of up to 1.6m/s when moving on the ground.

The team recently developed a thin-film actuator that allows the microscopic robot to continuously change shape and "lock" into specific configurations, much like the robots in the "Transformers" series, giving it enhanced adaptability to different environments.

The actuator is a controllable shape-shifting device that serves as the “heart” of the microrobot.

Microrobot introduced by Tsinghua University can fly, run, and transform shape

"The robot consists of many components such as actuators, rotors, motors, control modules and lithium batteries," Professor Zhang Yihui from the School of Aerospace Engineering and National Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics Technology of Tsinghua University, who led the research team, told the Global Times .

The shape-shifting actuator allows the rotors to transform into wheels when the robot lands on the ground, Zhang explained.

The team also used more than 10 actuators to create a miniature "Transformer" robot that is 4.5cm tall and weighs only 0.8 grams.

In the future, these microrobots could be used in equipment diagnosis and maintenance, geological exploration and cultural relics, potentially replacing humans in complex and dangerous environments.

The miniature actuator could also find applications in biomedical devices, developing vascular stents that open up areas in blood vessels, allowing better blood flow.

The research was published in the international scientific journal Nature Machine Intelligence .

Read more Back to Topics

Back to topic

HEART AND SUN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/trung-quoc-khoe-tao-ra-robot-biet-bay-chay-va-bien-hinh-nhu-transformers-20250421082602176.htm