Engineers design 3D-printed robot 'ants' that can walk over leaves, link up like a centipede and call for help by themselves

Ants are among the most industrious creatures on Earth, so it's only fitting that engineers would look to them for inspiration when designing small robots that can collaborate on complex tasks and maneuver through uneven territory. Daniel Goldman, Dunn Family Professor in the School of Physics, was part of a team that created a simple but effective swarm of six-inch "robot" ants that were able to overcome obstacles and terrain individually, and link up to form longer chains when they couldn't accomplish a task alone.