The tiny robot can deliver drugs to the human body one day. It can climb the walls in the gut and move in the lungs. (Image Credit: Yingdan Wu and Xiaoguang Dong, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
This is kind of small for industrial robotics…but it looks like this one could be a heavy lifter in the future.
One day, humans could rely on tiny, soft, yet flexible robots for drug and medical sensor delivery in areas that may seem difficult to reach. Soft robots of this nature have already been created for the human lungs, stomach, etc., where the bots cling onto the walls. Engineers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems developed “millirobot,” a tiny, ultrathin bot that moves around the stomach with one purpose: drug delivery.
While other soft-bodied robots that crawl in tight areas exist today, the team realized these need enhancements before using them on 3D objects with slippery surfaces. For example, the robots would need to stick and stay in place for a long time. So they designed a tiny robot with spiky feet, allowing it to bypass any issues it may encounter that other robots typically come across. This robot, measuring 3.7mm long and 1.5mm wide, can cling onto mucus in the gut without damaging anything while moving around. So far, the millirobot can climb upwards, upside down, and in any other direction.
The spiked feet are what made the project so successful. At first, the team attempted to use footpads that clenched on the tissue, but these failed to ease their grip. So they decided to try out chitosan spiked footpads, which are identical to plant burrs that stick to clothing. On the other hand, the robot is made of flexible magnetic metal, moving around via a magnetic field manipulating machine controlled by the team. The bot moves through mucus by placing and attaching its foot on the surface until its body flips around while freeing the other foot, a process the team calls “peeling and loading.”
In their tests, the team placed the robot inside a pig, where it moved around the lungs and digestive tracts. They discovered the bot could move down the esophagus, bronchial tubes, stomach, and intestines. In this case, the millirobot clung to extremely slippery and wrinkled biological tissue even as the tissue was shaken up and flooded with water. It also demonstrated the ability to carry a payload three times its size and twenty times its weight. Improving the robot’s capabilities could allow it to deliver drugs or take biopsies anywhere in the body. Despite its usefulness, it's still frightening.
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