Bacteria-inspired microrobots
Scientists at ETH Zurich and EPFL have developed tiny elastic robots that can change shape depending on their surroundings. Modeled after bacteria and fully biocompatible, these robots optimize their movements to get to hard-to-reach areas of the human body. They stand to revolutionize targeted drug delivery.
One day we may be able to ingest tiny robots that deliver drugs directly to diseased tissue, thanks to research being carried out at ETH Zurich and EPFL.
A group of scientists led by Bradley Nelson, Professor at ETH Zurich, and Selman Sakar, Professor at EPFL, drew inspiration from bacteria to design smart, biocompatible microrobots that are highly flexible. These robots can swim through liquids and change shape as needed to move through narrow blood vessels and intricate systems without compromising on speed or maneuverability.
The microrobots are made of hydrogel nanocomposites and are based on the Japanese Origami folding technique. In addition, they contain magnetic nanoparticles allowing them to be controlled via an electromagnetic field as the researchers report in the journal "Science Advances". Alternatively, the microrobots also utilize the fluid flow to navigate to navigate on their own through cavities.
Embodied intelligence
"Thanks to their special composition and structure, our robots can adapt to the characteristics of the fluid they are moving through. If the density, viscosity or osmotic concentration changes, they modify their shape to maintain their speed and maneuverability without losing control of the direction of motion," explains Sakar. These deformations are so to speak "programmed" in advance by the type of pleating technique and the choice of material alone, without the need to embed electronic systems in the robots.
"In nature, there is a multitude of microorganisms that change shape as their environmental conditions change. We have been inspired by this basic principle in the development of our microrobots," explains Nelson. "The key challenge for us was to develop the physics that describe the types of changes we were interested in, and then to integrate this with new fabrication technologies.”
So far, the miniature robots have lived up to expectations and can be manufactured quite easily and cheaply. The research team is currently working on improving the performance of swimming through complex fluids like those found in the human body.
Source: H.-W. Huang, B.J. Nelson, F.E. Uslu, M.S. Sakar, P. Katsamba, E. Lauga, Adaptive locomotion of artificial microswimmers, Science Advances
Altered version of the EPFL press release