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Tiny robots modeled on bacteria could be used to administer drugs in hard-to-reach areas of the human body. Scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) have developed what they call elastic microbots that can change shape depending on their environment.
When a patient needs medication, it is usually administered orally or intravenously and the body's systems carry the medicine to the part of the body where it is needed. But recent developments in the area of targeted drug distribution have ensured that medicines are delivered to the specific area where they are needed, with higher concentrations of drugs in some places. The development of elastic robots could potentially revolutionize the targeted delivery of drugs by making it possible to administer drugs in all areas of the body, even the most difficult of access.
Microbots are very flexible and are able to swim in fluids and change shape depending on their environment. They can pbad through narrow blood vessels without slowing down or becoming difficult to maneuver. The robots consist of tiny hydrogel nanocomposites containing magnetic nanoparticles. They can therefore be controlled through the use of an electromagnetic field.
After creating the robots, the challenge was to find a way to "program" their shapes to allow them to traverse all environments of the human body. Scientists have found a way to use embodied intelligence, in which the robot's physical being is adaptable to its environment, rather than the traditional calculus used by most electronic systems. The robots are built with an origami-based folding method that allows them to deform to adopt the most efficient form for a given environment. Deformations can be set in advance to make performance smoother. Once inside the body, the robots can either be controlled by an electromagnetic field, or left to their own path using the flow of fluid inside the body.
"Our robots have a special composition and structure that allows them to adapt to the characteristics of the fluid in which they transit," said Selman Sakar, an badistant professor at the Institute of Mechanical Engineering. EPFL, in a statement. "For example, if they experience a change in viscosity or osmotic concentration, they change their shape to retain their speed and maneuverability without losing control of the direction of movement."
The results are published in Progress of science.
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