Overview
- Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, the University of Michigan, and Cornell published the findings in Science Advances.
- Simple 300-micrometer 3D-printed disks spin under oscillating magnetic fields to generate fluid flows that transfer torque to nearby passive structures.
- Torque and object motion were tuned by adjusting robot number, spin rate, and spatial arrangement, including programming gear rotation and direction.
- Swarms actuated gear trains, grippers, and rack-and-pinion systems and rotated three-dimensional objects vastly larger than individual robots.
- The teams observed an emergent crawling state along object boundaries, pointing to future uses in microscale manufacturing and biomedical manipulation.