As seen in the video, the magnetically inclined advanced manipulation robots can climb the walls and travel on flex circuits. The robots are shown demonstrating how they can glue together carbon fiber rods. A robot applies glue to the side of a carbon rod while another robot is shown putting a glue droplet on the substrate in order to hold the rod’s spot. This same robot turns around and dips the end of the effector into water and lifts a carbon rod that is placed into its proper position. The robots are then finished with their task.
These types of robots are very difficult to control, thus these robots are controlled by magnetic fields that are generated by the printed circuit board substrate. The robots are driven around at a micro speed of 35 cm/s on circuit boards so the magnetized fields stay central to the operation. From photos, they appear to be dime-sized, and can travel up to 35 cm./s. 
These machines are part of DARPA’s Open Manufacturing Program, which hopes to “lower the cost and speed the delivery of high-quality manufacturing goods” to create “a manufacturing framework that captures factory-floor and materials processing variability and integrates probabilistic computational tools, informatics systems, and rapid qualification approaches.” 
These micro-robots are extremely useful tools that can have an array of flexible applications in the industrial world. DARPA’s program hopes to incorporate these efficient robots into manufacturing factories so they can perform industrial tasks quickly and autonomously. The electronic magnetic technology that is being implemented here is not necessarily a brand new invention. There have been other previously invented magnetic autonomous robots implemented traditionally for similar projects.
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