This site had already pointed out the european mini-robot work. That work has now been covered by the MIT technology review. The work is interesting because it is system work at the macro scale that tries to integrate with manipulation at smaller scales. Currently the smaller scale is at the micro level of biological cells and current atomic force microscopes (which are not accurate enough yet for mechanosynthesis). However, getting robots to work together is a capability that will be useful for the vision of large scale molecular manufacturing.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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