Programmable microscale robots able to adapt their shape in response to their environment or to specific stimuli are attractive for a number of applications, such as optical and biomedical devices. However, shape morphing is tricky to achieve in robots smaller than a few millimetres. Now, writing in Nature Materials, Itai Cohen and collaborators report the fabrication of microscopic metasheet robots that can be electronically controlled to achieve a range of shapes and a locomotion gait.

By connecting different regions of the metasheet robot to platinum wires it is possible to actuate them independently, driving the formation of various shapes. By actuating different areas with a phase delay, it is also possible to obtain locomotion. The metasheet robots can work in a variety of environments, including aqueous solutions with a wide range of pH values and in biocompatible electrolyte solutions.