When was the last time you heard about someone washing the roof of their home? Sure there might be some, but for the most part since none of us really look at the roofs of our homes, we don’t really bother with it. This also means that if you have solar panels installed on the top, they can start to get pretty filthy.
However scientists in the UK and the Netherlands might a solution to that and have created a robot that is powered by light. They have also designed it in such a way that when it moves, it can also be used to transport small items or even be used to clean the surfaces of solar cells, according to the team who developed it.
How the scientists created the robot was by installing a polymer material inside of a frame, with the material able to react to light. When light is shone on it, the shape of the polymer will change very quickly, thus allowing it to “crawl” like you can see in the video above. However the question is whether or not there are plans to commercialize this creation, but in the meantime you can check out the robot in action in the video above.