Researchers in Silicon Valley have developed insect-size robots that can manufacture microstructures that are too small and complex to be built by current machinery or by hand.

The robots are part of work by SRI International into next-generation manufacturing technology funded by the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. military’s research and development arm.

They range in size depending on their complexity, but the smallest is just 2 millimeters square and can zip around a board so fast that it’s almost difficult to see.

The robots are built on top of tiny magnets and are propelled electromagnetically. In a demonstration last week in Palo Alto, California, one of the tiny bots moved over a distance about 100 times its length in one second.

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