Electronics Research Group scientists at Sheffield Hallam University's School of Engineering in Sheffield, UK, have received a grant of £180,000 over three years through the European Union's Esprit program to further develop a vision system for next-generation microrobots. Just a few cubic centimeters in size, the robots are equipped with microgrippers and visual sensors and will be able to move and cut samples on the object slide of a microscope to the precision of a nanometer. The microdevices are typically used in microassembly, chip testing, biology and medicine.

Based at the school's Microsystems & Machine Vision Laboratory, the team began the project in 1998 with the development of the Miniman V microrobot. The effort involves six other European countries as well as industry partner Kammrath & Weiss GmbH.