These tiny robots could make it easier to deliver precision medicine with health care.
If you have tried to treat everything with the same round tablet, you will know that medication isn’t always designed to target particular pain areas. Many illnesses can be treated with over-the-counter medications for years. However, biomedical scientists are now looking at ways to more effectively treat complex medical conditions like cancer and cardiovascular disease using targeted drug delivery.
The potential future of biomedicine is the millirobot. These tiny robots, which are only a few inches in size, can crawl, spin, or swim in tight places to distribute medication and explore inner workings. They could be the future of medicine.
Renee Zhao is a mechanical engineer at Stanford University. and is currently developing several millirobot designs. One of these robots, a magnetic crawling robotic, can navigate through obstacles in the body. Zhao’s team discovered a way to propel a robotic vehicle across the body at ten times its length by simply changing the direction and strength of the magnetic field.
The magnetic actuation, which provides untethered control and allows for non-invasive operation, is a key component of Zhao’s research. It also separates the control unit and the device for miniaturization. Zhao stated that their latest robot, featured in the journal Nature Communications was “the most robust, multifunctional, untethered robot ever created.”
The new “spinning enabled wireless amphibious origami milirobot” is just as multifunctional as it suggests. The unit is a single, elegantly designed unit that can travel quickly over uneven surfaces of organs and swim through fluids. It can also transport liquid medications wirelessly. Zhao, an assistant professor in mechanical engineering, said that unlike pills swallowed and liquids injected, the robot withholds medication until it reaches the target. Then, it releases a high-concentration drug. This is how our robot delivers targeted drug delivery.
Reshaping drug delivery
Zhao claims this amphibious robot is unique because it uses origami’s foldability instead of traditional origami-based designs. This allows Zhao to change the way a robot moves and morphs.
Zhao’s team looked at the possibility of folding the robot to enable it to perform certain actions. For example, an accordion fold could squeeze out medicine. Zhao’s team also examined how the exact dimensions of each fold affected the robot’s rigid motion when not folded. The robot’s folded form lends itself to propulsion in the environment. These broad-minded thoughts allowed researchers to get more out of the materials and not add bulk. In Zhao’s world, the more functionality achieved within a robot’s design, the less invasive the medical procedure.
Combining certain geometrical elements is another unique feature of the robot’s design. The robot can swim faster thanks to a longitudinal hole in its centre and lateral cuts along the sides. Zhao stated that this design creates negative pressure for the robot to swim fast and provides suction for cargo pick-up and transport. “We make full use of the small robot’s geometric features and explore this single structure for various applications and functions.”
Stanford Department of Medicine experts and the Zhao Lab are looking at ways to improve current procedures and treatments by developing new technologies. Zhao hopes that her robots will not only be able to dispense medicine efficiently but can also carry instruments and cameras into the body. This could change how doctors treat patients. They are also using ultrasound imaging to track robots’ movements, eliminating the need to open organs.
The simpler and smaller, the better
Although we will not see millirobots such as Zhao in real healthcare settings until more information is available about design and imaging best practices, the first-of-its kind swimmer featured in Nature Communications by the lab is one of their robots is farthest along. The robot is currently in trial, which precedes live animal testing or human clinical trials.
Zhao’s team continues to combine a variety of smart materials and structures into new designs that eventually form biomedical devices. She plans to scale down her robots to conduct biomedical research on the microscale.
Zhao, an engineer, strives to create the simplest structures possible with the greatest functionality. Zhao’s amphibious robot is an example of this mission. It inspired her team and encouraged them to consider geometric features not commonly prioritized by origami robot researchers. Zhao stated, “We began looking at how all of these work in parallel.” “This is a unique aspect of the work and has wide potential application in biomedical fields.”