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The robots could soon take control of our brain – but not for the reason that you think.
Mechanical engineers have developed a snake-like robot to navigate the narrow pathways of the body, especially the blood vessels in the brain.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists hope the invention, currently in the prototype stage, can be used to break blood clots or treat stroke and aneurysms.
A similar treatment called mechanical thrombectomy has been used for years, in which a wire was to be manually guided into vessels, starting with an artery of the upper thigh. But the treatment is not ideal; it requires a surgeon with specialized training and involves the use of X-rays to guide the path, which could expose patients to radiation damaging tissue.
The MIT robots, detailed in this week's Science Robotics journal, move with the help of magnetism and can be used remotely, so they would not require X-rays.
The robot wire is made of a nickel-titanium malleable alloy covered with a paste filled with tiny magnetic beads and covered with a smooth polymer to reduce friction in the artery.
The MIT team has successfully tested the device on brain models on a larger scale and plans to continue testing on smaller versions. Eventually, they hope to equip robots with drugs or lasers to administer treatments in fragile and difficult areas of the body.
The study's coauthor, Xuanhe Zhao, an associate professor at MIT, thinks that they could also help treat neurological emergencies faster and safer.
"If acute stroke can be treated in the first 90 minutes or so, the survival rate of patients could increase dramatically," Zhao said in a statement. "If we could design a device to reverse the blockage of blood vessels during this" golden hour ", we could potentially avoid irreversible brain damage. It's our hope. "
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