The problem with having a microscopic robot propelled by a horde of tail-flailing bacteria is you never know where it's going to end up. The tiny,bio-robots, which amount to a chip coated with a "carpet" of flagellated bacteria, and emerged from the primordial ooze of microrobotics research a few years ago as a concept for building microscopic devices and delivering medication at the cellular level. But as with any robot,the challenge for making them useful is bridging the gap from movement to automation. A team of engineers at Drexel University might own done just that, according to research recently published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics approximately using electric fields to direct the robots in a fluid environment.
Source: phys.org