Cornell University's research team has developed a microscale robot that is smaller than 1 millimeter. These robots are printed in the form of two-dimensional hexagonal "tiles" and, when stimulated by electricity, can transform into predetermined three-dimensional shapes and move. This technology is based on a principle called "kirigami," which involves cutting and folding materials to enable them to fold, unfold, and move. The flexibility of this robot comes from its innovative design concept. It consists of approximately 100 silicon dioxide panels that are connected together by over 200 movable hinges, each about 10 nanometers thick. When electrochemically activated through external wires, these hinges can fold in a mountain or valley pattern, causing the panels to open or rotate, allowing the robot to expand or contract by up to 40% within a localized range. Depending on the activation of different hinges, the robot can take on various shapes and potentially unfold into a flat shape after surrounding other objects. The research paper, titled "Electronically Configurable Microscale Kirigami Robots," was published in the journal "Nature Materials," with Dr. Qinghua Liu and Wei Wang as co-first authors and the project led by Professor Itai Cohen. His laboratory has previously developed micro-robotic systems with movable limbs, artificial cilia for fluid pumping, and autonomous locomotion. In the future, the research team plans to combine this flexible mechanical structure with electronic controllers to create highly responsive "elastic electronics" materials with properties that do not exist in nature. The applications of such materials may include reconfigurable micro-robots, miniaturized biomedical devices, and materials capable of reacting to impacts at speeds close to the speed of light rather than sound. It is claimed that these active metamaterials, or elastic electronic materials, could become the foundation of new intelligent substances, surpassing the possibilities of the natural world.