Homebrew robots reach dime size

While we're a bit skeptical of its claimed status to be "quite possibly the world's smallest robot," this so-called Pico bot is certainly impressive enough in its own right -- especially considering that it's the result of a DIY project. As you can see above, the bot is small enough to sit on a dime, yet it still packs enough brains (and power) to move around autonomously (if a little recklessly), motoring about at a top speed of 0.5 feet per second and lasting about 15 minutes before its battery runs dry. While it currently doesn't seem to be capable of much more than the antics on display in the video after break, its creator does see plenty of room for improvement, including adding ZigBee wireless communication, as well as an on-board camera and built-in GPS. Of course, there's also the possibility that someone could take things one step further and amass a pint-sized robot army, letting them annoy their co-workers on a hereto unheard of scale.

[Via MAKE:Blog]

[adam @ Apr 6th 2007 8:37PM]

Here's the world's smallest robot as of now:

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2005/09/14a.html

[Matt @ Apr 6th 2007 8:55PM]

They are talking about homebrew bots.. Yeah no homebrewer can make something that small..

[zac @ Apr 6th 2007 11:39PM]

If you check the stats on that dartmouth bot (or read the pico web site) that dartmouth thing is powered and controlled by the mesh it connects to. No battery + no on-board brains = no robot for me. Might as well call your lamp that plugs into the wall and is controlled by 60 Hz AC a robot.

[bobdole @ Apr 7th 2007 10:53AM]

why is it covered in human blood?

[Aaron @ Apr 6th 2007 9:03PM]

If it's not homebrew then why isn't the company (assuming there is one) that built it endorsing it?

[mshot @ Apr 6th 2007 10:10PM]

cool!

can only imagine the homebrew 10 years from now.

[Paul @ Apr 6th 2007 10:22PM]

It is kind of neat, I guess.
I would be really impressed if it could sense the end of the table and not fall off though.

[Jerome @ Apr 6th 2007 11:13PM]

I would love to see pictures of the motor drive and electonics!

That is neat!

The smallest pager motor that I have are the size of a dime!
4mm (0.158") diameter and an overall length of 16.4mm (0.65")

J-

[JOE @ Apr 7th 2007 4:51AM]

The Pabst is classic.

[Brian from Texas @ Apr 7th 2007 5:49AM]

I, for one, welcome our dime-sized robot overlords!

[McGinley @ Apr 7th 2007 6:37AM]

But,the only thing that it does is sense objects that are blocking it from its attempted suicide.

Nah,its pretty cool.

[benjamin :? @ Apr 7th 2007 6:48AM]

yay,, when theyre all go, maybe we could find them inside a kindersurprise.

[Jerome @ Apr 7th 2007 9:10AM]

here is the site
http://www.poor-robot.com/pico/

Zac: he made a pcb with a atmel on it with sensor. That is why the robot can back off when he hits the can in the video.

J-

[chych @ Apr 7th 2007 10:20AM]

Well, there is the Alice robot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_mobile_robot

Which is pretty small and doesn't have a battery that sticks out...

Sandia has one too:
http://www.sandia.gov/media/NewsRel/NR2001/minirobot.htm

[zac @ Apr 7th 2007 7:56PM]

Yep the Alice and Sandia bots are cool - but they are both at least two times as big as pico.