Nanopicture of the Day

www.nanopicoftheday.org

June 17, 2004

MARV

Source:  Doug Adkins and Ed Heller

      References:

"What may be world’s smallest mini-robot being developed at Sandia"  Chris Burroughs. Sandia News Release January 31, 2001.

Description:

The tiny little MARV (Mini Autonomous Robot Vehicle) is not quite "nano" sized, but is impressively small nonetheless.  Weighing in at less than an ounce and sitting nicely atop a quarter, these little robots are making great strides.  They are fabricated using stereo-lithography, a technique wherein a polymer resin is solidified by lasers to form a 3D structure.  Microfabrication lets all of the computing power for sensing and motion rest on the tiny microchip on top.  This current generation of mini robots are really only limited in size by the battery power supply, otherwise they could be even smaller.  The MARV robots are being designed to be helpful to a wide array of sensing and reconnaissance applications.  Future generations will even have radio transmitters, or even tiny video cameras. 

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