 If you think Terminator-style robots are what you should be worrying about, then you might want to think again. Researchers in the U.S. have recently created a swarm of powerful 2mm ants that can be individually controlled using a central computer. The army of 'robo-ants' are incredibly fast in comparison to their size and can move at around 13.7 inches (35cm) a second.  This, according to a report in IEEE, is equivalent speed of a ‘human running at slightly under Mach 1’ - or just under the speed of sound. The ants, named ‘Magnetically Actuated Micro-Robots’, have been designed to build tiny things on tiny scales, such as artificial cell structures or electrical circuits. While magnetically controlled robots aren't new, the ability to control them independently has previously stumped engineers.  This is because an external magnetic field affects all of the systems close to it in the same way. Californian group SRI overcame this problem by controlling the robo-ants on circuit boards that contain specific electrical patterns to keep magnetic fields localised. The ants have been shown to move rapidly on curved surfaces, up and down walls, as well as on flexible materials in any direction. According to SRI, the technology can be used to ‘reliably control thousands of micro-robots for smart manufacturing of macro-scale products in compact, integrated systems.’ The robots are part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s open manufacturing programme which hopes to lower the cost and speed of creating high-quality goods. The army of robo-ants has already built a tower 30 cm (11.8 inches) high from carbon rods. The researchers claim they can also work with glass, metal, wood, and electronic components.
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