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It's made from a thin sheet of polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF), a piezoelectric material that expands and contracts with the application of a small alternating current.
That expansion and contraction gives the roach-bot its way of moving: by adding a front leg and an elastic polymer layer, the scientists got the sheet to bend in a way that propels it forward.
The team experimented with several lengths of robot (from 10 to 30 mm) and varied the frequency and voltage of the electric current to alter the running speed of their designs. At its fastest, a 10 mm robot managed to scuttle along at a whopping 20 centimetres per second when 200 V were applied at 850 Hz.
Right now the bot needs to be tethered to its electricity source, but a future version could be powered by a tiny battery.
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