Sarah Bergbreiter: Why I make robots the size of a grain of rice

By studying the movement and bodies of insects such as ants, Sarah Bergbreiter and her team build incredibly robust, super teeny, mechanical versions of creepy crawlies … and then they add rockets. See their jaw-dropping developments in micro-robotics, and hear about three ways we might use these little helpers in the future.
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[@JPxKillz]

The project seems almost too incomplete to present like this. Great concept but there is not real meat to it yet.

[@greenzoid2]

They need funds to continue research, so shedding light on what they do never hurts I guess.

[@onesimpleclik]

Prof. Killionare Yeah I was thinking the same thing.

[@JPxKillz]

greenzoid2 That's true. But Ted usually showcases - more or less - complete projects; the end result. And that's what I've come to expect.

[@alejandrinos]

Prof. Killionare A big number of talks are made to get interest from sponsors and professionals who might want to work in the project. Notice at the end how she says "Hopefully some of you can contribute to that".

[@brucewayne-cave]

I agree, nothing was under it's own control, other than the light triggered pyro detonation; which did not jump, but was uncontrollably blown into the air. It was more of a wishlist or physics dreams of the future.

[@kxmode]

Reminds me of many Kickstarter projects; a lot of concepts but very few prototypes.

[@FaceClef]

Watching videos like this make me wonder how many decades ahead of this woman the military must be.

[@bavarianbenko8544]

FaceClef more likely she already works for them and is telling a third from what she knows to keep us in the dark

[@lowqualityshitposts8860]

Not all militaries, i dont think anyone others than USA Russia or maybe China could afford that

[@itsjustameme]

If you can get the voltage for it I think Piezo ceramics would revolutionize the way you make those engines and movable parts. It is basically a piece of ceramic that contorts in predictable ways when you put power on them and they are quite versatile and can be quite strong. The Piezo ceramics I know of that can currently work at the lowest voltage are from a company called Noliac - they have figured out how to make up the ceramic pieces out of tiny layers which drastically has reduced the power requirements. Perhaps that was worth looking into.

[@helenTW]

Also, Micro Scallops that could swim through blood are already invented :P

[@TheGOODNEWSfromHeaven]

Amazing! Hope that this latest technology will be use for the betterment of human conditions.

[@Titanic-wo6bq]

I'm supposed to watch this for school. I'm glad I am!

[@MrNevertube]

Awesomee. Congrats Sarah and team.

[@helenTW]

That 3D printed one is really cute :)

[@andothebot2192]

wow i wanna see that jump mehanics that was showed first and electronics

[@Peter-yg7ze]

interesting subject, but placing explosive under an object is not to jump. . or is it ? ( 4:09 )

[@USBEN.]

Im interested in that on board power source . But there are no link in description to know more . How do i know what power was that ?

[@DrakeOola]

It's just a ceramic capacitor, a light sensor like an LDR and a transistor plus some pyrotechnics. All they really did was make a miniature explosive that gets set off with light, nothing really impressive here... It didn't jump or move at all, just blew up like a little firecracker, the movement you see in the other ones is essentially just someone dragging a magnet under the table.

[@USBEN.]

@@DrakeOola Oh i see, thankyou for explaining man.

[@team_hong_c4841]

10/16 second video I am shocked that this tiny robot can have an great mobility. Unlike usual actuator or motor, This kind of things can be more useful in some situation. I think there will be many obstacles until this technology is widely used, but the concepts and idea is very fresh. In my opinion, use this technology into exoskeleton suits(like an ironman😁) would be good. Because exoskeleton suits needs to be light weight, small, and great power to move something.

[@MonkeyKong21]

just don't make them self-replicating

[@christianmccauley7340]

MonkeyKong you can, just make a limit.

[@christianmccauley7340]

Say ten million

[@Shadsterwolf]

lol the guy at 4:04 "DUHHHHHH"

[@CanEHdian7]

Right?

[@LukSingBong]

This robot extremely provided a so great idea for my research project！Respect man ！ 😉

[@laurel8831]

Great and interesting speech.

[@Mat383]

Didn't I see a movie about a kid controlling many tiny magnetic robots with a headband to create structures and later his creation gets stolen and used by a villain to destroy a University which belongs to a person who killed the villain's sister in an experiment with teleportation portals?

[@Eemony1]

Knowledge is truly power...

[@MaxBrix]

When I was six I moved a magnet on top of the table with a magnet under the table. That was in the 70s.

[@simonbanks5012]

Wow I'm glad my browser has the ability to go x4 speed otherwise that would have been 4 mins wasted (considering about 2 min was interesting, from about 1:40)

[@thiyaphea]

Well I wonder this project are still getting founded and where are they now cause it been 5 years

[@mireshlive]

good concept and they are working on it,and others will start soon as it will be practically useful

[@TehConqueror]

this should really just be a vine of her saying "BECAUSE I FUCKING CAN!"

[@guitargod4697]

This lab has not achieved anything new.

[@saraainaa-ridtzar3198]

Fabulous !

[@adityahoskere9063]

Why does it feel like this would almost never work. This would be too expensive and they still struggle to do most things bigger robots can do

[@BurkeLCH]

5:03 Why does it seem that there's always good reasons for invention but the only ones paying for the R&D are the military? Ugh... Sooner or later humanity will learn. All negativity aside, this is some awesome stuff :D

[@hunterbowman5150]

RyanBurke or you could see it in a optimistic view? At least the military is putting money into it. We have some pretty important modern inventions because of the money the military has put into emerging technology.

[@redsquirrel3893]

Because the military is bigger than any one company and it's income is more stable. It's good the military is investing though and it has lead to a lot of advances. Company's do invest a lot in research as well mostly in the pharmaceutical and technology sectors.

[@Unmannedair]

Because all the companies that are investing in R N D are smart enough not to tell the whole world about it. The only reason you even know about this research is to make some politician somewhere look good to his backers. Also, this is weak sauce. These guys are wasting their money. If these guys were any good then they'd already have several working controllable prototypes. Everything I've seen here is a clockwork toy. Interesting, but unusable or impractical.

[@Mink0twink]

RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT

[@ashkeacaronsnyx7023]

Amazing

[@MsMilkytheclown1]

How many of these mini robots will it take to "fix" Fukushima? Ohhh, that's a LOT!

[@rosyheart]

Nuthin can withstand the Heat; they will al melt, as all the Others, have don...Scientist$ are so screwed up; Fantasy Land in ther Mind or better; non compos mentis; Latin...for...Not of Sound Mind!!!

[@kurtilein3]

rosy heart what an ignorant comment. first of all, no robots melted at fukushima. secondly, your dismissal of objective truth makes you sound like some religious nut who completely lost touch with reality, or like a person in a psychotic episode.

[@alb4599]

very nice

[@mohanmech9587]

Accelerating these tiny robots in speed of light & We can observe the universe.

[@infonothing7807]

Now i can start liking small insects.

[@Idominusrex]

aight

[@orly7317]

When we already have a lot of NanoSumo class robots or 1/4 size Micromouse on competitions with dimensions of 25x25mm made by non-professional fans of robototechnics in home with usual components (and they do very complicated tasks, especially Micromouse robots, solving labirints in shortest time is very hard, rly), she is proud of 7x4mm robot which can do nothing. Seriously?

[@williamforbes6919]

Yeah, this is seriously lame stuff. Much more impressive robots have been made, self powered ones at that.

[@tsehaytecle9168]

Very good but does your jumping robot decrease the gravitational force of attraction to the ground.i mean what kind of physics can you explain

[@Zoza15]

This is cool stuff indeed!.

[@fa.h.]

Magnets? not impresive.

[@ChibiKeruchan]

I fucking need that to win a lot of coins on the coin pusher on arcades!! LOL

[@lolLeslylol]

Terminator was a Docu!

[@ivanmanko]

Why are millimeters written like "MM"? "M" is "mega", not "mili"; and "meter" is "m", not "M", since it's not derived from a person's name.

[@alienkishorekumar]

Awesome nanorobotics.

[@ubiquitousbaker5562]

while the idea of this seems pretty cool and fantastic i bet some would find it horrifying to give control up to anything not human.

[@757beko]

I didn't satisfied. We're building robots in so vulgar ways. I love mechanical engineering but I think the future of robotics in the bioengineering.

[@royal_throck2983]

Great, now I can be killed in my sleep by robots because of suffocation.

[@benji376]

"Aight?"

[@chorkiel]

This woman probably loved Big Hero 6.

[@JorgeGamaliel]

Smart Rice like Smart Dust. :D

[@AriffAmat]

Nanomachines, son!

[@calfeggs]

Well we have the robots already, the ants, just need a mechanism that rides and influences them to go where we want them to.

[@Kino280]

Big hero 6? (I want mind controlled nano bots)

[@Thisisnotmyrealname8]

And yet the audience is surely filled with people that believe that ants come about with no thought at all over millions of years in the back yard all by itself. I give you the Duality of Man.

[@justinw947]

alright?......alright?...alright...right....right?...alright?...right...

[@idlehands1111111111]

She says "Right?" A good hundred fuckin times I swear

[@superdoubt]

Technology does not exist to fulfill her rose colored dreams. These are concepts not robots.

[@devluz]

I saw many papers over the past few years talking about nano engines and similar systems and here we are in 2015 and ... not a single one actually works. I am starting to think a lot of research in this field is just scam :/ Getting media attention and funding but without ever archiving something. But at least in this TED they show how little actually works.

[@greenzoid2]

Or maybe, its just really hard and complicated. Its not like you can decide to research how to make a nano engine when no one before you has, and then expect your work to pay off in ONLY a decade.

[@devluz]

Yeah it is really hard I don't doubt that. I just wished the scientists would be able to show the truth in their papers instead of talking about breakthroughs all the time while nothing is happening

[@alejandrinos]

devluz One of the main problems that's halting progress in nano-technology is the need for better materials, a research field that advances really slow due to the cost/efficiency ratio. You have to look at the big picture to really understand the difficulty of these projects.

[@ninjafruitchilled]

devluz Did you read the papers? Or just media reports of them? Because those often tell quite different stories.

[@devluz]

Usually media and abstracts. If I read the whole paper I wouldn't understand it anyway. You might be right that the researcher not actually oversell it themselves and the media just needs a cool sounding story thus everything is a breakthrough

[@alexac404]

I like it till someone uses one to go into your house

[@jaclynbabybaby]

real life big hero 6?

[@hsgrain490]

A fourth grader could have given this presentation. TED should raise its standards.

[@lxc647]

I think she's right.

[@isaiahhiggins]

These micro robots are so cool, right?

[@foxtrot4real831]

Someone said that this will change war. It won't. -War breaks out -It gets brutal -New tech is made to wage war -War gets more complex -Boundaries shift -Alliances are made and broken -Peace is struck -People on the wealthy side get lazy -People on the poor side gets angry -The greedy want more -The cycle repeats Find a war in history that wasn't like that.

[@MrLaggy2000]

riiiight?.....right

[@attilaromanoczki2428]

wow perfekt I m hungary

[@Robonza]

She must have confused a lot of Americans with all those millimeters I am glad to see it is catching on though. Nice work.

[@aalozada]

Because you can’t make them Evangelion size ?

[@MikeLaRock88]

She must have watched big hero 6 with her kids..

[@Leviathanshadex]

I like the idea, but the only robots she showed actually working at the size of a penny or smaller were ones where she was using a magnet under the table, and one where she had attached a one-time explosive to. I suppose it's a step in the right direction, I'd just like to see more from this. Just because it's made using alloys and other materials doesn't make it a robot. Even the robot that you showed rolling over coins had no real leg mechanism, only wheels.

[@icebluscorpion]

@ TED Lame if I had the high tech to produce the same tiny silicon spring I would do better

[@valmerpower]

so it moved by erection? someone bettee show this to hawking

[@agustinusherlambang]

but how the robot lands...?

[@michaelcordeiro3749]

Nope'd out at the cockroach... Can't do it...

[@yintxint]

HIRO's MICROBOTS!!!!!!!!!!!

[@jackmejia4630]

This wasn't worth watching. Nothing she presented was an actual robot. a capacitor resistor and transistor glued together is not a robot. Title should be "failed mini robot motion concept" or "why i pretend to make robots the size of a grain of rice."

[@Leviathanshadex]

Thank you, my sentiments exactly. It was sad how unsubstantial this video really was. All she really showed was an explosive, and some magnets. Beyond that, she was unable to create any sort of movement at a small scale whatsoever. These can't be classified as robots.

[@behemoth2887]

Why would you make a small robot build a big building lol. Otherwise it's pretty cool

[@Ethercloud]

Yea imagine if someone programmed them to destroy and reassemble any matter they encounter, I've seen stargate the replicators are a scary very realistic possibility, I don't think our species is mature enough for nanotechnology period. Too many crazy people with no respect for human life and dignity. But nice work on the robots they were fascinating ^^ I have yet to construct robots on as small a scale as yours, your pin boards must be so tiny id imagine the soldering to be quiet tedious

[@rovers141]

Science fiction is way ahead of you lady, we of the nerds call them...nanites

[@RaspberryRockOffGridCabin]

You need to stop working on robots and start working on a machine that can build really small things.

[@darknessabed7224]

wait what if a robot makes a robot

[@dogeunkim8448]

darkness Abed why not, It could be easy

[@sand_of_reiwa]

いきなりゴキブリはきついて

[@williamforbes6919]

These kinda look lame if you care to compare them to the robots that researchers are starting to assemble at the molecular level. I mean, silicone joints are cool, but these have literally no way to power themselves or contain significant logic. A photocell activated flash charge doesn't count as on board control when the same ends could be reached with a purely chemical solution.

[@kipcrossing]

Not really robots, but ok...

[@sicfxmusic]

And then there are flat earthers #facepalm

[@superdoubt]

All talk, no robots....

[@killyourdarling9699]

great robots for assassination imagine ant robot walks through president office get into his body kills him and walks out and nobody see anything

[@DarkSideSixOfficial]

This is a global threat to human security. Drones, bots, robots, and chips of this size present a significant threat to Humanities natural rights to live, and be free with the ability to chose privacy and/or what they deem necessary for survival and progression, as well as self preservation of ones self, and the enviornment around them.

[@amyasseektruth8246]

The technology and effort is great... the reason for building these nanorobots sound like bullshit to me. Darpa would love this.

[@Arahvhel]

seriously, imagine a network of ants that you can control, and that these ants are able to do wiring, building and maintenance (and self replication or self maintenance). Now give them a garbage dump to sort for materials, and organize it into neat little piles of metal, plastic and all. If we manage to build these in a sufficient scale, because they are so tiny and yet so numerous these can change the way we build, recycle, repair, even heal (for healing the scale needs to be reduced even more, but i'm pretty sure you understand what I'm going for). Oh btw, since these weigh around nothing they can be super cheap material-wise to produce. Also, if one of them breaks, then so what, you still have hundreds.

[@flyinspirals]

Are there really numerous people sitting watching this and complaining that nanorobot researchers have not progressed fast enough or far enough to show us their bots? And, they should have gotten a more charismatic presenter, and why is a woman doing it, etc., etc... If they promise to make the very first nanobot inspectors run around looking for things for you to complain about, will that satisfy you? Sh...

[@karlpilkington997]

Hmmmm A guy could made this in his basement

[@semak.6699]

Muharrem bu asalaklar olmazsa sinirlerim düzelir problem çıkmaz inşallah

[@felixthefoxMEXICO]

ROBOTS ARE DESTROYING JOBS. WE'RE NEED EITHER: A) TRADE BANS ON ROBOT-INPUT PRODUCE, B) NO TRADE. WELL, JUST THINK ABOUT THE CONCEPTS. PLEASE.

[@g4bouuu]

Like si bajaste para ver si ya habían puesto las respuesta a tu tarea de L3 xd

[@giano7u718]

oe k yo recién la hago XD

[@yomajo]

Somehow in years from now I see it being used for bad purposes.

[@TUNApocalipz]

"...right?" AAAARRRGH SHUT UP

[@shanbanaan8095]

its all great till it lands on the wrong hands as always

[@GnanaPrakash86AP]

wtf? so she didn't really make anything for real? just talk? I have more projects in my mind with more meat than this.

[@drakez1983]

well, the show called TED talks, what else did you expect??

[@williamdeleeuw]

" i have more projects in my mind"

[@christianmccauley7340]

Gnana Prakash until you make those robots, your just as bad as her. If you only have them in your mind you have no idea wether it will bet better.

[@samsson6430]

This is all fascinating, but you God damn nerds are loco. I wonder what the implications are of making tiny monsters we cannot control. I'm going to invent my own EMP.

[@cellocovers3982]

She's not a very good speaker but whatever. "right? right? right....

[@fqidz]

Zack Peach true