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Modular microrobotics transitioning from remote to on-board electronic control

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Abstract

Microrobotics has traditionally relied on macroscopic control systems to direct the behaviour of microscopic entities that are too small to act autonomously. Yet in many applications, autonomous action is essential: human intervention is often too imprecise, remote or slow to be practical. In this Review, we illuminate the field of modular microrobotics, focusing on the opportunities and obstacles in achieving on-board control and autonomy. Advances in scalable methods to integrate electronics into 3D microscopic structures have finally enabled mass production and systematic downscaling of microrobots (≤1 mm), with the convergence of information processing and material fabrication technologies making on-board electronics feasible at this size, even within complex forms with interior vessels. These developments promise to disrupt current approaches based as a whole on larger, externally controlled marionette microrobots by delivering true microrobots down to the scale of biological cells. Self-assembling autonomous microrobots equipped with high-density on-board electronics are now technologically within reach, bringing learning capabilities and the coevolution of morphology and control to modular microrobotic systems.

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Fig. 1: Modular microrobots, from macro-tethered to microrobots proper.
Fig. 2: Projected scaling of modular robots following Wright’s Law.
Fig. 3: Microelectronic robot miniaturization.
Fig. 4: Reconfigurable modular microrobots forming collective structures.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank their colleagues D. Karnaushenko and M. Zhu for discussions contributing background understanding to this Review. J.S.M. thanks colleagues associated with the ECLT, R. Füchslin and N. Packard, for discussions over the years about information processing in small autonomous systems. O.G.S. acknowledges financial support by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 835268) and the Leibniz Program of the German Research Foundation (SCHM 1298/26-1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Material Systems for Nanoelectronics, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany

    John S. McCaskill, Vineeth K. Bandari, Saskia Schmidt & Oliver G. Schmidt

  2. Research Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes (MAIN), Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany

    John S. McCaskill, Vineeth K. Bandari, Saskia Schmidt & Oliver G. Schmidt

  3. European Centre for Living Technology (ECLT), Ca’ Bottacin, Venice, Italy

    John S. McCaskill & Oliver G. Schmidt

  4. International Institute for Intelligent Nanorobots and Nanosystems, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Oliver G. Schmidt

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  1. John S. McCaskill
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  2. Vineeth K. Bandari
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Contributions

O.G.S. and J.S.M. conceived the structure of the Review. The writing and referencing was mainly the work of J.S.M., based on discussions with O.S.G. and V.K.B., apart from some text on swarm robotics contributed by S.S. and several paragraphs notably on sensing by V.K.B. Figures 1 and 2 were jointly conceived and drafted by O.G.S., V.K.B. and J.S.M. Figures 3 and 4 were drafted by J.S.M. and edited by V.K.B. and O.S.G. The tables were contributed by V.K.B. All corresponding authors were involved in manuscript and figure revision.

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Correspondence to John S. McCaskill, Vineeth K. Bandari or Oliver G. Schmidt.

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McCaskill, J.S., Bandari, V.K., Schmidt, S. et al. Modular microrobotics transitioning from remote to on-board electronic control. Nat Rev Mater (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-025-00889-w

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