Tiny Robots Could Aid Surgery: Report
Posted in: medical, Robots, Today's Chili
Surgical procedures could soon be aided by tiny, rotating robots, according to BBC News. The report said that while the miniaturization of motors hasn’t kept up with other electronics like LCD displays and memory chips, new research reported in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering has detailed a motor about twice the size of a human hair.
Up until now, there has been no way to power such a small device, meaning that it couldn’t get around inside the human body. “Conventional electric motors do not perform as well as they are scaled down in size; as they approach millimeter dimensions, they barely have the power to overcome the resistance in their bearings,” the report said.
With the rise of so-called piezoelectric materials—crystals that expand and contract when a voltage is applied—tiny linear motors became easier to manufacture, according to the report. Now research indicates that these tiny motors could be “coupled to a structure with a helix-shaped cut in it,” allowing the motors to rotate when pushed at one end—similar to how the tail-like flagella on bacteria work. Next stop: testing the new motors in fluids, as opposed to inside a pristine lab environment. Cool stuff, as long as you don’t think about it too hard; then it gets gross. (Check out the short, non-gross video for an animation of how they work.)
Post a Comment