Researchers have developed a method for steering microscopic swimming robots using light patterns and the principles of Einstein's theory of relativity. The technology is a potential first step toward deploying tiny robots in applications ranging from medicine to manufacturing.
One of the major challenges of developing microrobots for practical applications is creating ones capable of navigation without the inclusion of bulky sensors and other electronics, which would make the machines too large to operate at the desired scale (like inside a human body). In an attempt to overcome this issue, physicists at the University of Pennsylvania created "artificial space-time" to direct machines to travel in the same way that spacecraft or light does while crossing the universe.
