Cheap robots by the millions
Typically it costs many hundreds of dollars to make a robot that can do something substantial. However, researchers at the Fraunhofer institute have created molded or stamped robots that can be created very cheaply – they imagine them to be like disposable gloves. Make them, use them and then throw them away.
This is done through the process of selective laser sintering to shape the plastics for the robot by combining shapes and materials in a single component. This enables the robot to be built layer by layer into a final machine. Interestingly the animal that they chose to replicate is the spider!
https://www.lzh.de/en/publications/pressreleases/2012/weedcontrolwithoutchemicals
