Robotic automation, microrobotics and robotic perception and recognition all advanced a few steps closer to their future applications during the recent NIST Tests.

Robotic automation, microrobotics and robotic perception and recognition all advanced a few steps closer to their future applications in manufacturing, health care and other areas during the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Tests in China at the beginning of May.

The trio of contests are designed to prove the viability of advanced robotics and microrobotics technologies.

In the Mobile Microrobotics Challenge (MMC), seven teams from Canada, Europe and the United States pitted their miniature athletes—whose dimensions are measured in micrometers (millionths of a meter)—against each other in two events. The mobility challenge required the microbots to navigate a two-dimensional maze about the size of a sesame seed. In the microassembly challenge, the competitors had to put together multiple microscale components in a narrow channel to simulate two applications: operation within a blood vessel by future medical microbots and assembly-based micromanufacturing.

For further information visit the NIST pages