New Millirobot Can Degrades Internally Without Harming Tissues

Oct, 2022 - By WMR

Scientiest discovers a millirobots, which are around the width of a finger, have enormous opportunity as a medical device since they can interact with our sensitive tissues without harming them.

A magnetic soft millirobot that can roll and pick up and drop objects has been created by researchers at the City University of Hong Kong. Iron oxide microparticles and biodegradable gelatin make up the device, which can be controlled by magnetic fields. The concept holds great promise like a minimally invasive medicine delivery system, possibly in the digestive tract, and it could even evolve to soft robots that can do surgery within the body. The device's quick biodegradation over a few days is one of its best characteristics as it eliminates the need for retrieval after it has completed its task inside the body by disintegrating into harmless components.

The gross and rather unsettling cousins of their more conventional stiff counterparts are soft robots. Despite having the ability to interact with human sensitive tissues without harm, they may resemble a creature from the deepest ocean trenches, yet they offer a lot of potential as a medical tool. These robots may offer advanced methods for reaching and treating bodily parts that would otherwise be difficult to target in the fields of drug delivery and minimally invasive surgery.

The new millirobots are around a finger wide and strikingly resemble the stated sea species. The robots can manoeuvre their way through body cavities like the gastrointestinal tract by rolling and folding. The millirobots are made of gelatin, a naturally occurring substance, and since they can biodegrade in water in as little as two days, they open the door to medical procedures without the need for a subsequent surgical surgery to remove the millirobot.

The robot is very responsive to magnetic fields and can be controlled thanks to iron oxide microparticles found inside the gelatin framework. The microparticles pull and stretch the gelatin structure as a result of the magnetic fields, creating flexible 'legs' that can move.Moreover, iron oxide microparticles located inside the gelatin framework provide the robot its high sensitivity to magnetic fields and allow it to be commanded. Through the magnetic fields' effects on the microparticles, the gelatin structure is pulled and stretched, giving it flexible "legs" that can move.