Microscopic robots crafted to manoeuvre separately without any obvious guidance are now assembling into self-organised structures.

Bruce Donald, the Duke University computer scientist behind the research, explained that each microbot is shaped something like a spatula but with dimensions measuring just microns. They are almost 100 times smaller than any previous robotic designs of their kind and weigh even less.

In videos produced by the Duke University team, two microbots can be seen pirouetting to the music of a Strauss waltz on a dance floor measuring 1mm access. In another sequence, the devices pivot whenever their boom-like steering arms are drawn down to the surface by an electric charge.

The microbots propel themselves across an electrified surface in the style of an inchworm. Driven by a ‘scratch-drive’ motion actuator, the microbots move between just 10 and 20 billionths of a meter each, but the motion is repeated up to 20,000 times every second.

In a new report, the research team shows that five of the microbots can be made to advance, turn and circle together in pre-planned ways when each is built with slightly different dimensions and stiffness.