Just daydreaming and came up with an interesting idea for a very tiny bot chassis. Busy with another project for now, but this might be my next project. I wanted to share the idea, see if anyone has done/seen this kind of thing before. Made up of multiple segments, the bot would move the way an inchworm does, through a simple rythmic "humping" movement, starting at the tail and moving forward. Each segment would be a small piece with a high-friction bottom surface and a spine sticking up in the center. Segments would be joined by muscle wire, connected from the top spine of each segment to the base of the previous segment.
The chassis wouldn't be able to support much in the way of electronics or sensors, but without any motors, it's power needs would be incredibly miniscule. At this scale, you could probably make each segment from a paperclip and some of those self-adhesive rubber "feet" used to keep bric-a-brac from scratching wood surfaces, and a few components (two transistors, one capacitor, and a few resistors) I might give a castor to the head so it can support the battery and a few sensors and slide along without actually being lifted (since it would house the heavy and unique components like the battery)
The inchworm propulsion would be terribly inefficient at a larger scale (as illustrated by the lack of any larger creatures in nature that inch along the same way!) but at a small enough scale it becomes a very simple and efficient means of propulsion. Has this been done before? probably; any thoughts or links?