Researchers at Dartmouth University have developed a microrobot measuring about 60 micrometers wide by 250 micrometers long. That’s about the width of a human hair. That makes it the smallest robot ever created.

The robot is ten times smaller in length than previous microrobots. Amazingly the microrobot is controllable in that you can direct it anywhere on a flat surface. The microrobot can move freely across a surface unrestricted without wires or rails. Another feature previous generations of microrobots were incapable of performing.

The microrobot actually crawls like a worm, making tens of thousands of 10-nanometer steps every second. The microrobot turns by pivoting about a single foot.