Researchers in Germany have developed a 1/7th-inch-long robot small enough to move around in a human’s stomach or urinary system.
Although the robot hasn’t been tested in people yet, the group’s eventual goal is to use it to deliver drugs to difficult-to-reach targets in the body. Made of elastomer rubber, the robot can morph its shape, jump, crawl, roll and swim—traversing both wet and dry environments.
Lead researcher Metin Sitti told The New York Times the team would eventually like to make even smaller robots capable of navigating the vascular system.
“If you look at the medical devices we have, the smallest ones are catheters, which are a millimeter in diameter, and they are always tethered,” he said. “So our main goal in making tiny robots is to really access hard-to-reach or even not-possible-to-reach areas in our body with minimal invasion.”
The researchers are also exploring drug-delivery methods and ways to make the robots biodegradable so they could be dissolved in the body without any side effects.
Read Sitti’s full interview with The Times below:
Daniel joined TriMed’s Chicago editorial team in 2017 as a Cardiovascular Business writer. He previously worked as a writer for daily newspapers in North Dakota and Indiana.