The body length ranges from 6 mm to 90 mm, and the mass ranges from 0.2 g to 3 g. It can climb on different surfaces, such as the inside and outside of a cylindrical surface, wavy surface, wedge-shaped surface, spherical surface, etc., and can also transition between two different surfaces. Recently, Professor Zhang Yihui's research group of the School of Aerospace and Aeronautics of Tsinghua University has innovatively developed a micro soft climbing robot that can adapt to walls with different shapes. Because of its tiny body, the micro robot with climbing ability can take the place of human beings to enter the complex and unstructured environment to perform special tasks. It has great application value in detection, biological medicine and other aspects. Muscle like soft drivers composed of soft materials can provide excellent flexibility, adaptability and mechanical robustness for robots. The corresponding micro soft climbing robots have also received extensive attention from researchers. However, how to achieve the micro soft climbing robot to climb on a variety of surfaces, or even transition between two different surfaces, still has a huge challenge. In this research, based on the customized driving strain design strategy and buckling assembly method of liquid crystal elastomer, the research group developed a series of small-scale electrothermal actuators with customizable three-dimensional deformation capabilities, which have rich three-dimensional configurations and diverse driving deformation capabilities. Compared with existing electrically driven 3D drivers, this type of driver can achieve complex deformation effects and maximum bending deformation angle at millimeter scale (from 1mm to 10mm). In addition, the actuator has the characteristics of shape recovery and stiffness regulation under the action of temperature. Based on the above customizable 3D driver preparation, the research team designed a micro software climbing robot that includes three parts: reconfigurable electrostatic adsorption feet, deformable body and intelligent joints. Through the characterization and analysis of the robot's deformation performance and foot adsorption performance, the robot can climb on the inner and outer cylindrical surfaces, wavy surfaces, wedge-shaped surfaces, spherical surfaces and other surfaces with different morphologies. Inspired by the multiple movement gait of plankton hydra, the researchers realized the on-demand switch between the robot's three movement gait, namely, stepping, "tumbling" forward and flipping transition, by controlling the variable stiffness "intelligent joint". Finally, the robot can climb walls with different materials, different roughness and different shapes, and transition between two different walls. Zhang Yihui introduced that after "unlocking" this new skill, the micro software climbing robot can enter some narrow and complex environments to perform tasks such as detection instead of humans. For example, in complex systems such as aircraft engines and oil refineries, the robot can go through various curved structures such as pipes and gears to reach designated locations for fault detection and other tasks. The relevant research results were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences under the title of "A micro soft robot based on a deformable three-dimensional actuator that can climb and transition on complex surfaces". (Outlook New Times)