The Invisible Optometrist
5 micro robots inside our body to replace doctors
Smile-Expo company blog, Geektimes
In recent years, scientists around the world have been looking for ways to use nanorobots to treat diseases. They are injected into the human body to deliver medicine or perform operations that require maximum precision (for example, cleaning clogged arteries). By replacing an invasive, often complex operation, such robots can significantly optimize medicine – and now this reality is closer than ever.
Robot Oyster for Eye treatment
Microscopic medical robots have one problem: it is almost impossible to install at least some motors and drives for them, since there is hardly enough space for the necessary electronics. Given that the ocular fluid has very specific properties, the usual drive is not suitable for the movement of microscopic robots.
The solution to the problem turned out to be oyster robots that use a reciprocating drive - that is, forward and backward movement, rather than the standard circular rotation.
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (Germany), led by Professor Peer Fischer, found out that robots in the form of oysters are ideal swimmers in a non-Newtonian fluid.
Today, the oyster robot acts as the basic structure of future micro robots.
A microscopic robot that floats through the veins with a crawl
Specialists of the Harbin Technical Institute (China) have created a microscopic robot that can swim through human veins with the fastest type of swimming – crawl. In size, the device reaches 5 micrometers and is able to swim at a speed of 10 microns / s, covering a distance of 50 meters in a month. In the blood, its speed drops to 5.5 microns / s, but this does not prevent it from delivering medicines to the right organ in time.
The body of the micro robot is made of gold, and the working hands are made of nickel. Thanks to the change in the magnetic field, the scientists of the institute can easily control its direction of swimming, forcing the robot to move its arms. However, the robot is still too small to deliver the necessary amount of medicine to the organ, and the introduction of a group of robots into a vein is dangerous: it will not be possible to control each of them individually.
The developers are planning a deep revision. To do this, they use biodegradable materials, increase the size of the robot and refine the swimming system, which will allow several microscopic healers to be launched into the vein at once. Clinical trials of micro robots are planned to be conducted within 10 years.
Robot bacteria from developers from EPFL and ETHZ
Scientists from EPFL and ETHZ institutes have developed a robot that has the structure of a bacterium that causes African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness). The bacterium moves with the help of a flagellum and is able to fold it at the right moment. By the same principle, rejecting most of the options, scientists have developed a microscopic robot that repeats the structure of this bacterium and has a flagellum, so it can easily move in the blood.
Robots shaped like bacteria are made of flexible materials and do not have drives for movement. They are created from a biocompatible hydrogel and magnetic nanoparticles that allow, under the influence of a magnetic field, to change the shape of a micro robot and make it move in the blood.
Scientists have yet to test the development for side effects and conduct control tests of a group of micro robots.
A robot that delivers medicines to the stomach
The University of California at San Diego (USA) has published a report on last year's successful transportation of the drug into the stomach of an experimental mouse using a microscopic robot. The main task of the microrobot was to deliver gold particles into the wall of the mouse's stomach (imitation of the drug), since this metal does not dissolve under the influence of its gastric juice.
Zinc nanobots moved in the stomach due to a chemical reaction caused by the contact of zinc with gastric juice. As a result, micro-bubbles of hydrogen formed, which moved the robot forward. The microrobot overcame a distance of 2.5 cm in 7 minutes.
After the nanobot completed the task assigned to it, the scientists studied the filling of the mouse's stomach. It turned out that the micro robot delivered a piece of gold to the right place on the stomach wall, while not causing any side effects. Scientists continue to refine the nanorobot, improving its technology and methods of drug delivery.
Nanite robots from Drexel University
Researchers at Drexel University (USA) demonstrated to the general public their latest development – nanorobots in the form of chains consisting of microscopic balls. The devices were formed into chains of 3 to 13 balls: the longer it is, the faster the nanorobot moves.
A magnetic field was used to move the robot, which rotated the chain like a screw. The faster the magnetic field rotated, the faster the chain rotated. The high frequency of rotation of the magnetic field led to the deformation of the chain and its division into smaller compounds of 3-4 balls. The maximum speed of movement of the nanorobot, which was recorded, was 17.85 microns/s.
Scientists continue to work on improving the device. It is planned to use the development to deliver drugs through the body using the circulatory system.
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