How small?

[GluttonyReaper]

How small could you feasible make a robot that is mobile (wheels?) and has a camera mounted on it, while being remotely controllable?

[sal_vager]

No matter how small, someone will make a smaller one eventually

[How2FoldSoup]

One example: http://image.helipal.com/hubsan-h107c-red-onhand.jpg

[GluttonyReaper]

One example: http://image.helipal.com/hubsan-h107c-red-onhand.jpg

Very nice, indeed. I do wonder if it would be possible to get even smaller, though.

No matter how small, someone will make a smaller one eventually

Yeah, and cheaper, too. I can't wait for the future, when things like this will be not only viable for the average person, but as abundant as mobile phones are today.

[sgt_flyer]

Well, here's one (the article is a bit dated, but they said it would be possible to add a camera etc)

http://www.sandia.gov/media/NewsRel/NR2001/minirobot.htm

After that, they have even smaller microbots,

http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/magazine/the-worlds-smallest-untethered-robot/

Although, good luck for putting a camera on that one

Else, maybe this one too

: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-video/10035466/Robotic-insect-worlds-smallest-flying-robot-makes-first-flight.html

[-Velocity-]

You start running into fundamental physical limits. Like you simply cannot form an image with any decent resolution if the camera's lens is too small.

Wheels would be a VERY BAD idea. They do not grip and cannot cross the kinds of obstacles that are extremely common in the mesosacles and microscales. Use legs; model your robot off an insect. It might even be easier to just use a real insect itself, and piggy-back onto it.

BTW, they are able to remotely control the insect, you can give it like electrical pulses or something similar to steer or prompt it to go in certain directions. I didn't read the caption for the above image, but if I had to guess, they are steering the insect by stimulating its antennae or the stumps where its antennae used to be.

Edited November 24, 2014 by |Velocity|