Disease-fighting microrobots
8 Feb 2019 by Evoluted New Media
Tiny ingestible robots have been developed to deliver drugs directly to diseased tissue. The devices are made of hydrogel nanocomposites containing magnetic nanoparticles, allowing them to be controlled via an electromagnetic field. Researchers used an origami-based folding method to design the microrobots, which can modify their shape to maintain their speed and manoeuvrability. They can also adapt to the type of fluid it is moving through, such as those that are dense, viscous or moving at rapid speeds. The developers, from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and ETH Zurich, described their method in Science Advances.
