Tiny Microrobot the Size of a Grain of Salt Could One Day Repair the Human Body From Within
We’re far from realizing the kind of nanomachines envisioned in media like The Diamond Age and Metal Gear Solid, but researchers have taken a meaningful step toward the next best thing. A team from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan says they’ve built a sub-millimeter sized robot packed with a computer, motor, and sensors. It’s not an actual billionth of a meter in size, but being smaller than a grain of salt, it is still outrageously tiny: a microrobot. The work, described in a new study in the journal Science Robotics, could be a platform for one day building microscopic robots that could be deployed inside the human body to perform all sorts of medical miracles, like repairing tissues or delivering treatment to areas difficult for surgeons to access. I’m a tech and science correspondent for Futurism, where I’m particularly interested in astrophysics, the business and ethics of artificial intelligence and automation, and the environment.
In This Article:
A Microchip-Like Microrobot Built for Life Inside Fluids
Visually, the researchers’ robot resembles a microchip and is made of the same kinds of materials, including silicon, platinum, and titanium, WaPo noted. It’s sealed in a layer of what is essentially glass, protecting it from fluids. The robot uses solar cells to convert energy that powers its onboard computer and its propulsion system, which uses a pair of electrodes to generate a flow in the water particles surrounding it. In a word, the robot swims. Its onboard computer is less than a thousandth of the speed of a modern laptop, per WaPo, but it’s enough to let it respond to changes it detects in its environment like temperature.
A Robot That Senses and Responds to Its Environment
Having a robot on the scale of microns, or one millionth of a meter, would give us access to what corresponds to the smallest units of our biology, Miskin told WaPo. “Having a robot on the scale of microns, or one millionth of a meter, would give us access to what corresponds to the smallest units of our biology,” Miskin told WaPo. “It’s the first tiny robot to be able to sense, think and act,” coauthor Marc Miskin, assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering at UPenn, told WaPo. “We can send messages down to it telling it what we want it to do,” using a laptop, Miskin told WaPo, “and it can send messages back up to us to tell us what it saw and what it was doing.” “Having a robot on the scale of microns, or one millionth of a meter, would give us access to what corresponds to the smallest units of our biology,” Miskin told WaPo.
Not Yet for Humans, But With a Decade of Potential
At present, the device is still highly experimental and isn’t suited to be used inside a human body — but it would not surprise me if in 10 years, we would have real uses for this type of robot, coauthor David Blaauw from U-M told the newspaper. “It’s not ready for human trials yet,” the team said, but the potential is clear: researchers envision microscopic robots that could eventually perform tasks beyond what surgeons can reach. “Having a robot on the scale of microns, or one millionth of a meter, would give us access to what corresponds to the smallest units of our biology,” Miskin told WaPo.
The Next Holy Grail: Inter-Microrobot Communication
So the next holy grail really is for them to communicate with each other, Blaauw told WaPo. It would enable coordinated tasks and richer autonomy rather than isolated action.
Author’s Note and Visuals
I’m a tech and science correspondent for Futurism, where I’m particularly interested in astrophysics, the business and ethics of artificial intelligence and automation, and the environment. More on robots: Video Shows Robot Attacking CEO
