Israeli scientists have invented a kind of miniature robot which can travel the blood stream and deliver drugs throughout the human body.
It is the smallest robot yet developed and unprecedented both in miniaturization as well as in its ability to be controlled for an unlimited amount of time while in the body, according to Israeli scientists of the Haifa's Technion University and the College of Judea and Samaria.
"At a size of 1 millimeter in diameter and 4 mm in length, it is the smallest miniature robot (of its kind) made to date," Nir Shvalb, a researcher at the mechanical electronics lab of the College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel, said in an interview with Xinhua, noting that the robot crawled rather than swam through blood vessels to give it more control.
The next smallest robot of this type was developed by researchers at the Kyoto University and measures 1 centimeter in diameter.
"The big advantage of this design is that there is almost no limit to narrowing the size of the robot," Oded Salomon, a researcher at the medical robotics lab of Haifa's Technion University, told Xinhua in a telephone interview.
The robot, whose tiny arms allow it to grip to the inner walls of blood vessels, can withstand blood pressure and advances through the blood stream propelled by vibration activated through an external magnetic field.
"Because we use an outer source of energy, we can control the robot for an unlimited period of time. There is no battery inside which runs out, all the energy comes from outside," Salomon said. The robot would be used during minimally invasive operations asa vehicle for drug delivery and as part of brachy therapy in cancer treatment.
"The big difficulty in brachy therapy is applying the drug in the specific areas requiring treatment," Salomon said, noting that the robot would allow for delivery to the specific areas and for an unlimited amount of time.
Salomon added he would work with research partners Shvalb, and Moshe Shoham, head of the medical robotics laboratory at the mechanical engineering faculty of the Technion, to create smaller versions and increase its applicability.
"We have the option to use a few miniature robots for simultaneous intervention and controlled treatment in a number of cancer cells," Salomon said, noting that smaller versions would increase the robots applicability.
"Due to the robot's structure, as it doesn't have an actuator inside of it, it is both easy and cheap to develop a smaller version," Shvalb said.
