Fly-sized robots aimed at surgery

Robots the size of flies controlled by computers smaller than grains of salt could be with us within two years.

A prototype "millibot" is being built to see if scientists can miniaturise to the scale of a nanometre – a millionth of a millimetre – to build intelligent materials and microscopic machines.

James Ellenbogen of the Mitre Corporation told the association that the first insect-like robot – a motorised silicon chip with six legs – could be built by the end of 2004. "Once we decide on the right fit, I'd be pleased as punch if we had one next year that would scuttle across the table and avoid objects," he said.

The aim is to build computers that could fit on a grain of salt, composed of memory devices as small as a human cell. "We have prototype circuits for this, it is very real... The system we are building is a memory system. What we are really worried about is increasing the density of mass storage," said Dr Ellenbogen."What you would have done essentially is to shrink the memory of an old PC into the space of about eight human cells."

One of Dr Ellenbogen's aims is to design robots that could perform surgery within the human body.