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Did an injectable microrobot run through your veins one day?

 


20200827 Microscope robot

The computer-generated image shows a microscopic four-legged robot.
Image credit: AFP

Scientists in London have created an army of microscope four-legged robots that can be invisible to the naked eye when laser-stimulated to walk and can be injected into the body through hypodermic needles.

Microscopy robotics is seen as having a variety of potential uses, especially in medicine, and researchers in the US say new robots offer “the potential to explore biological environments.”

One of the main challenges in developing these cell-sized robots is to combine control circuitry and moving parts into such a small structure.

The robot described in the journal Nature is less than 0.1 mm wide-the width of human hair-and has four legs powered by solar cells mounted on it.

By irradiating these solar cells with laser light, researchers were able to move their legs and move the robot around.

Marc Miskin of the University of Pennsylvania, co-author of the study, told AFP that a key innovation in the study was that the leg-its actuator-can be controlled using silicon electronics.

“Fifty years of electronics shrinkage has created some very small technologies that allow us to build sensors, computers and memory all in a very small space,” he said. “But if you want a robot, you need an actuator and moving parts.”

“Understand what is possible”

Researchers admit that their work is now slower than other “swimming” microbots, more difficult to control than those guided by magnets, and not sensitive to the environment.

According to Miskin, robots are prototypes showing the possibility of integrating electronic devices with parts that support the movement of parts, and hope for rapid development of technology.

“The next step is to build sophisticated circuits. Can you build a robot that senses and responds to the environment? What about a small programmable machine? To be able to run without human intervention. Can you do it?”

Miskin said he envisions biomedical applications for robots or material science applications such as material restoration at the microscale.

“But this is a very new idea and we are still trying to figure out what is possible,” he added.

“Swallow the surgeon”

The researchers said they were able to produce the components of the robot in parallel. In other words, we were able to make over a million components per 4 inch silicon wafer.

The legs are made of nanometer-thick platinum and bend when stimulated by laser light, creating a walking movement.

The researchers said their average speed was about one body length per minute, adding that “it’s comparable to the crawling of living microbes.”

Research shows that the robot can withstand very acidic environments and temperature changes of over 200 degrees Kelvin (-73 degrees Celsius).

Alan Brooks and Michael Strano of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a commentary published at Nature, that the concept of a robot that is small enough to travel through blood vessels is 1959 by Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman.

They said this new study provides a “clear vision” to solve the challenge of creating small robots that can convert energy into motion and can be programmable.

“The author’s robot, in its current form, is not autonomous, but can be thought of as a “brain” and a platform on which batteries can be attached,” they said, ” It will be overcome soon.”

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