A tiny robotic worm can wiggle its way through a model brain. It could eventually be used to make brain surgeries less invasive.
Yoonho Kim and his colleague Xuanhe Zhao at Massachusetts Institute of Technology created the robot out of a polymer with small magnetic particles embedded throughout, meaning it can be directed using a magnet. It is coated in a self-lubricating material and is less 0.6 millimetres聽in diameter.
The pair tested the robot on a聽silicone model of a human brain, which contained a substance that mimics blood. When controlled with a magnet held outside the brain, the robot could worm its聽way through hard-to-reach blood vessels.
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鈥淭he reason why robotics couldn鈥檛 go into this domain before is the existing robots that can navigate through a blood vessel were too large in diameter,鈥� says Kim. Instead robots are used in the heart, where arteries are wider.
The magnetic microparticles also show up on continuous x-ray systems, so could be used to help surgeons navigate the tricky web of arteries and veins in the brain.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 really interesting 鈥� and the clinical implications are there, if at a very early stage,鈥� says Eloise Matheson at Imperial College London. 鈥淭he system, how they tested it and what it shows, is really promising.鈥�
The next step, says Kim, is to test the device on animals, which the duo is in talks with neurosurgeons at Harvard Medical School about doing.
Science Robotics
