New Class of Microrobots Could Travel in the Body

A team of engineers has designed a new class of tiny, self-propelled robots that can zip through liquid at incredible speeds — and may one day even deliver prescription drugs to hard-to-reach places inside the human body.

The group’s microrobots are really small. Each one measures only 20 μm wide, several times smaller than the width of a human hair. They’re also really fast, capable of traveling at speeds of about 3 mm per second, or roughly 9,000 times their own length per minute. That’s many times faster than a cheetah in relative terms.

The group deployed fleets of these machines to transport doses of dexamethasone, a common steroid medication, to the bladders of lab mice. The results suggest that microrobots may be a useful tool for treating bladder diseases and other illnesses in people.

The team makes its microrobots out of materials called biocompatible polymers using a technology similar to 3D printing. The machines look a bit like small rockets and come complete with three tiny fins. They also include a little something extra: Each of the robots carries a small bubble of trapped air, similar to what happens when you dunk a glass upside-down in water. If you expose the machines to an acoustic field, like the kind used in ultrasound, the bubbles will begin to vibrate wildly, pushing water away and shooting the robots forward. (Image credit: Shields Lab)

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