A microscopic robot that it is so small it can be injected into the body through a syringe could one day analyze medical conditions, deliver drugs or perform minimally invasive surgery.
The system, developed by Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, is particularly well-suited to navigate through the blood vessels of the heart or the fluids located behind the eye and in the ear to diagnose and treat disease.
“The application we’re actively considering is eye surgery in which these devices are guided inside the eye toward the retina by a surgeon to inject drugs in retinal veins that are about the size of a human hair,” said team leader Brad Nelson.
About four hair-widths long, this robot doesn’t need battery. Its power comes from an external magnetic field. The magnet acts to align and pull the robot lengthwise, which because of its elongated shape behaves like a magnetized needle — one tip has a positive charge and the other tip has a negative charge.
The robot has movable mechanical components designed to be tuned to specific magnetic frequencies, switching to a different frequency in the micro-robotic system vibrates a different mechanical part on the device.
Via Discovery robotics.