#microrobotics

Living hybrid microbots can decontaminate water. Thoughts health innovators?

Biohybrid microrobots are composed of a living organism integrated with artificial materials. Biohybrid microbots take advantage of the natural actuation and sensing mechanisms of motile microorganisms, such as bacteria and algae which could one day be used to deliver disease-fighting drugs or attack tumors in the body. In contrast to their synthetic counterparts, microorganism-powered…

Week in Brief (31 July – 4 August)

Credit: Harvard University. Soft pop-up arm performing tissue counter-traction during an ex-vivo test on a porcine stomach.

A flexible robotic arm for endoscopes that has integrated sensing has been developed by a team of researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, USA.

The robotic arm remains flat on the endoscope until it is required, at which point it can be raised and used for surgical procedures. The arm is a hybrid robotic that uses a rigid skeleton surrounded by soft materials, and can be scaled down to 1 millimetre. This is particularly useful for endoscopic medical procedures that until now have used rigid surgical tools.

Tommaso Ranzani, a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS and the Wyss Institute and coauthor of the paper, commented, ‘At the millimeter scale, a soft device becomes so soft that it can’t damage tissue but it also can’t manipulate the tissue in any meaningful way [...] That limits the application of soft microsystems for performing therapy. The question is, how can we develop soft robots that are still able to generate the necessary forces without compromising safety.’

Soft actuators, powered by water, have been integrated into the device. Sheila Russo, postdoctoral fellow at SEAS and Wyss and lead author of the paper, commented, ‘We found that by integrating soft fluidic microactuators into the rigid pop-up structures, we could create soft pop-up mechanisms that increased the performance of the actuators in terms of the force output and the predictability and controllability of the motion [...] The idea behind this technology is basically to obtain the best of both worlds by combining soft robotic technologies with origami-inspired rigid structures. Using this fabrication method, we were able to design a device that can lie flat when the endoscope is navigating to the surgical area, and when the surgeon reaches the area they want to operate on, they can deploy a soft system that can safely and effectively interact with tissue.’

Harvard’s Office of Technology Development has filed a patent application on the technology.

Credit: Harvard University. Multi-articulated soft pop-up robotic arm. Concept of the system (left): An endoscope navigating in the GI tract and detail of the arm mounted at the tip of the endoscope. Soft pop-up arm (right) performing tissue counter-traction during an ex-vivo test on a porcine stomach.

To find out more visit, bit.ly/2vvUZqh

To read An Additive Millimeter-Scale Fabrication Method for Soft Biocompatible Actuators and Sensors, visit bit.ly/2wrtdbY

In other news:

- A method of forming a thin layer of graphene on the surface of wood has been developed by a team of scientists at Rice University, USA. 

- UK public support for fracking reaches new low 

- Engineers at the University of California, USA, have created a ceramic skull implant that allows doctors to deliver ultrasound therapies into the brain 

These U of T Researchers Use Tiny Microrobots to ‘Scoop Up,’ Transport and Deliver Cell Material

Researchers from the University of Toronto have demonstrated a novel and non-invasive way to manipulate cells through microrobotics.

One method of cell manipulation – moving small particles from one place to another – is through optoelectronic tweezers (OET), which use light patterns to directly interact with the object of interest. But there are limitations to the force that can be applied…

Pollinators participate in the sexual-reproduction of plants. When you eat an almond, beet, watermelon or sip on coffee, you’re partaking of an ancient relationship between pollinators and flowers. But since the 1990s, worldwide bee health has been in decline and most evidence points to toxic pesticides created by Shell and Bayer and the loss of genetic biodiversity due to the proliferation of GMO monocrops created in laboratories by biotech companies like Monsanto.

But never worry, those real life pollinators—the birds and the bees, as they say—may soon be irrelevant to the food needs of civilization. Harvard roboticists are developing a solution to the crisis: swarms of tiny robot bees made of titanium and plastic that can pollinate those vast dystopian fields of GMO cash crops.

The Harvard Microrobotics Lab has been working on its Micro Air Vehicles Project since early 2009. Borrowing from the biomechanics and social organization of bees, the team of researchers is undergoing the creation of tiny winged robots to fly from flower to flower, immune to the toxins dripping from petals, to spread pollen. They even believe that they will soon be able to program the robobees to live in an artificial hive, coordinate algorithms and communicate amongst themselves about methods of pollination and location of particular crops.  

Of course, published reports from the lab also describe potential military uses—surveillance and mapping—but the dime-sized cyber-bees have yet to be outfitted with neurotoxin tipped stingers.