World's Smallest Medical Robot Travels the Bloodstream

The world's smallest robot, with a diameter of only one millimeter, can enter a patient's bloodstream and deliver medical treatment.

The tiny robot, developed by researchers of the mechanical engineering department at the Technion (Haifa, Israel) and of the Judea and Samaria College (Ariel, Israel), has the unique ability to "crawl” through the inner walls of blood vessels by using tiny arms that radiate from a central hub that allow it to withstand blood pressure in order to progress through veins and arteries. The operators can manipulate the robot to move in increments, and the robots unique structure allows it to crawl within a variety of vessels with differing diameters.

The robot is powered by an external magnetic field, allowing it to be controlled for an unlimited amount of time during medical procedures. One possible application could be used for brachytherapy (short distance radiation therapy), which is commonly used to treat prostate cancer and cancers of the head and neck.

"This accomplishment of miniaturization is without precedent, as is the ability to control the robot's activity for unlimited periods of time, for any medical procedure,” said robot co-developer Oded Solomon, B.A., B.Sc., a researcher at the medical robotics lab of the Technion. "We hope this discovery can be used to improve the quality of care for diseases and many other conditions.”

"We have the option to use a few miniature robots for simultaneous intervention and controlled treatment in a number of cancer cells,” added Salomon, noting that smaller versions would increase the robots applicability.


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Technion
Judea and Samaria College