Tiny Robots in Blood Vessels May Perform Medical Tasks

A bacteria-like micro-robot, or microbot, that will be able to swim through the human body and perform medical tasks may soon become a reality.

Researchers in the micro/nano physics research laboratory at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) aim to build a tiny machine 250 microns in diameter--no wider than two human hairs--to do the job. The researchers have already built a working linear motor the size of a salt crystal, and they believe that within three years, a microscopic motor could be a reality.

Another problem is how to propel the device through the bloodstream when ordinary propellers do not work on such a small scale. The researchers believe that the solution lies in rotation. A special flagella-like propeller will allow the microbot to swim within the human body and perform tasks by remote control, mimicking the swimming behavior of Escherichia coli bacteria. Like a whip being whirled around its axis, the flagella forms the shape of a coil, screwing its way through the fluids.

"The motor works through axial vibration and torsional vibration,” explained microbot development team leader Dr. James Friend, Ph.D., a senior lecturer at Monash. "If you can imagine a pizza maker who takes a round ball of dough and, as he throws it into the air, he spins it so it turns in a helical motion. Well, our motor does the same thing, except it spins 100,000 times a second.”

The microbot would be injected into an artery or a vein and be able to move through the body and pick up a cell or take a biopsy. It could then bring it back, or simply act as a chemical sensor.



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