A team of University of Hawaii electrical engineering graduate students has placed second at a miniature robots competition in Shanghai, China.

The university said Wednesday it was the first time a micro-robotics UH team competed in the event, which was organized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

They competed against teams from the United States, France, Italy and Canada.

The tiny robots, less than 0.6-millimeters, competed in miniature arenas under a microscope. In one event, robots were timed as they moved around a figure-eight track.
In another event robots assembled tiny triangles.

The Hawaii team’s micro-robot consists of a tiny air bubble inside a microchamber. Light from a computer projector is used to heat the surface of the microchamber, which generates a force that moves around the micro-robot.