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Researchers at Chemnitz University of Technology demonstrate autonomous micro-scale communication and coordinated motion in a new class of self-sufficient electronic microrobots
In a major step toward intelligent and collaborative microrobotic systems, researchers at the Research Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes (MAIN) at Chemnitz University of Technology have developed a new generation of autonomous microrobots—termed smartlets—that can communicate, respond, and work together in aqueous environments.
These tiny devices, each just a millimeter in size, are fully integrated with onboard electronics, sensors, actuators, and energy systems. They are able to receive and transmit optical signals, respond to stimuli with motion, and exchange information with other microrobots in their vicinity. The findings are published in the prestigious journal Science Robotics under the title “Si chiplet–controlled 3D modular microrobots with smart communication in natural aqueous environments”. Unlike previous generations of microrobots that relied on much larger wireless control setups to mitigate limited onboard functionality, smartlet microrobots are powered by integrated photovoltaic cells, controlled by tiny microchips, and capable of optical communication through embedded micro-LEDs and photodiodes. "For the first time, we demonstrate a self-contained microrobotic platform that not only senses and moves in water but also interacts with other microrobots in a fully programmable and autonomous manner," explains Prof. Oliver G. Schmidt, one of the corresponding authors of the study and Scientific Director of MAIN.
The microrobots are built using a flexible origami-inspired approach, based on smart multilayer patterned materials, allowing the flat electronic system to roll and fold up autonomously into a tiny scroll-adorned hollow 3D cube, with interior as well as exterior functionality. This opens up the extra surface space needed for each cube to carry its own solar energy harvester, computational logic, and an optical signaling system, in addition to interacting external faces and inboard locomotion. When immersed in water, these smartlets can move up and down by buoyancy forces created by bubble generating engines that fill the hollow interior of the smartlet with gas. They can also emit pulses of optical signals to broadcast instructions to other smartlets nearby. This setup enables multi-robotic interactions in water, including stimulus-driven movement, synchronization, and coordination among multiple smartlets. For example, when one unit receives a light signal, it can decode the information using its onboard processor, triggering a coordinated motion or behavior in others. “The idea of using light as both energy and information opens up a compact and scalable way to create distributed robotic systems,” adds Dr. Vineeth Bandari, co-corresponding author and research group leader at MAIN.
One of the key innovations lies in the smartlets’ use of a “wireless communication loop” that does not require any external cameras, magnets, or antennas. Optical messages are interpreted locally on each robot using custom-coded logic stored on their microchips. The smartlets make use of innovative soft-bonding to origami-films to attach custom microscopic silicon chiplets, called lablets, which were developed in an earlier European Union funded project led by Prof. Dr. John McCaskill, a co-corresponding author and member of MAIN. This permits decentralized control and collaboration—an essential foundation for creating robotic collectives that behave in a coordinated yet flexible way.
Beyond the laboratory, the potential applications of such microrobots are wide-ranging. Because they are untethered, biocompatible, and able to respond to environmental cues, these devices could one day assist in tasks such as monitoring water quality, performing minimally invasive medical diagnostics, or probing confined biological environments. Their ability to form interactive, stimulus-responsive colonies could also be used in soft robotics, autonomous inspection systems, or distributed sensing networks. Dr. Yeji Lee, co-author and specialist in active multi-layer microfabrication, whose recently completed PhD research provided vital contributions, emphasizes that this work is just the beginning. “We’re exploring ways to further increase autonomy by adding chemical and acoustic sensing modules. These smartlets could evolve into multifunctional platforms that sense, act, and adapt in complex fluidic environments.”
Looking forward, the team envisions the progressive evolution of these microrobots into dynamic systems that resemble colonies of digital organisms. Much like zooids in colonial animals such as siphonophores, each smartlet can serve a specialized function—sensing, communicating, moving—and together form an emergent robotic organism. “We’re still far from creating artificial life,” cautions Prof. John McCaskill, who was a founding Director of the European Center for Living Technology in Venice, “but we are starting to see how distributed intelligence and modular hardware can build systems that begin to mirror the adaptive, communicative behaviors of living collectives.” By building such self-contained, communicative microrobots, the Chemnitz team is not only addressing fundamental challenges in microrobotics but also laying the groundwork for future systems that operate, evolve, and perhaps even self-organize—inside water droplets, tissue scaffolds, or miniature ecosystems.
Prof. Dr. Oliver G. Schmidt, Scientific Director of the Research Center MAIN and Chair of the Professorship of Material Systems for Nanoelectronics at the TU Chemnitz, E-Mail oliver.schmidt@main.tu-chemnitz.de
Si chiplet–controlled 3D modular microrobots with smart communication in natural aqueous environments, Yeji Lee, Vineeth K. Bandari, John S. McCaskill, Pranathi Adluri, Daniil Karnaushenko, Dmitriy D. Karnaushenko, Oliver G. Schmidt, Science Robotics (20 Aug 2025)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adu6007
- Video "Smart microrobots learn to communicate and collaborate in water"
3D modular microrobot – called smartlet - sitting on a fingertip.
Quelle: Photo: Jacob Müller
Schematic illustration of the fabrication sequence of the smartlet.
Quelle: Graphic: TU Chemnitz / MAIN
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3D modular microrobot – called smartlet - sitting on a fingertip.
Quelle: Photo: Jacob Müller
Schematic illustration of the fabrication sequence of the smartlet.
Quelle: Graphic: TU Chemnitz / MAIN
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