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Could Robotic Crabs Assist in the Medical Field?
Scientists have created tiny robots that can crawl inside hard-to-reach places in a global first. Could these be the future of medical care?
Engineers from the Northwestern University have developed a prototype of miniature robotic crabs that can fit into a pinhead.
The automatons are the smallest-ever remote-controlled walking robots — and come in the form of a tiny, peekytoe crustacean.
Just a half-millimetre wide, the robotic crabs can bend, twist, crawl, walk, turn, and jump, and have potential applications across various industries, including the medical field, researchers said.
The robots work using a special alloy that remembers its shape; when it’s heated up by a precision laser at specific points, the alloy flexes, and when it cools, it pops back to its original form.
Engineers said this rapid heating and cooling is what moves the robotic crabs around, at speeds up to half their body length per second.
Currently, the research is in an exploratory stage, but engineers believe their technology might bring the field closer to realizing micro-sized robots that can perform practical tasks inside tightly confined spaces.
The research was published in the journal Science Robotics. Last September, the same team introduced a winged microchip that was the smallest-ever human-made flying structure.
Commenting on the new technology, John A. Rogers, who led the experimental work, said: “Robotics is an exciting field of research, and the development of microscale robots is a fun topic for academic exploration.
“You might imagine micro-robots as agents to repair or assemble small structures or machines in industry or as surgical assistants to clear clogged arteries, to stop internal bleeding or to eliminate cancerous tumours — all in minimally invasive procedures.”
The tiny robots move without complex hardware, hydraulics, or electricity, making them ideal to fit into tight spaces usually inaccessible by normal means.
As well as the robot crabs, the engineers have also been working on other small robots designs for similar tasks, including millimetre-sized robots resembling inchworms, crickets, and beetles.
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Rogers added: “With these assembly techniques and materials concepts, we can build walking robots with almost any sizes or 3D shapes.
“But the students felt inspired and amused by the sideways crawling motions of tiny crabs. It was a creative whim.”
Rogers said the robots have been primarily created for academic purposes, but the technology used to make the tiny crabs has potential.
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