ACEIZE

This year's RoboCup has some very small entrants. The NanoCup was played on Saturday with five competitors from the US, Canada, and Switzerland including ETH Zurich and Canada's Simon Fraser University. They competed in two events; A two-millimeter dash and a challenging slalom, where the robot must reach a goal that is blocked by stationary defenders that look like running men but are about the diameter of two hairs.

The nanobots were placed inside a glass tube, the contents of which were projected onto a screen via two high powered microscopes. Competitors used remote controls to send commands to their robots, or more precisely to send commands to electro-magnets surrounding the glass tubes.

It is hoped that this competition will raise awareness of the usefulness of nano-scale robots in the medical industry.