Customized picospring with programmable elasticity in microscale robotic actuators

Mimicking the spring-like structure from microorganisms to sense, grip, and move remains an appealing and demanding design task for microrobots. Recently, in Nature Nanotechnology, Xu, Medina-Sánchez, Schmidt, and co-workers presented 3D nanofabricated soft microrobots equipped with super-compliant picoforce springs for force sensing and action execution. This outstanding work may bring fresh insights into the production of soft microrobots with effective design programmability for cell mechanics, cell screening, and micro-sized cargo transportation.