MIT Researchers Develop Tiny, Hair-Size Batteries

How do you power very tiny robots that can be used in critical and sensitive applications such as in drug delivery in humans or perhaps in monitoring pipeline integrity? These are some of the problems researchers in MIT were working on and have recently found a solution.

A team of MIT researchers led by Professor Michael Strano recently demonstrated very tiny batteries which measure about 0.1 millimeter in length and 0.002 millimeter in thickness, which is about the size of a human hair. The tiny batteries were able to generate up to 0.1 volt, which can be used to power tiny robots in human drug delivery or other such applications. At present, the tiny batteries are connected externally to the robots, but in the future, the team is working on fully enclosing the batteries within the robot itself.