In collaboration with two researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and a third from the Harbin Institute of Technology, a group of researchers at Soochow University has created a kind of tiny soft robot that can be disassembled into smaller parts to fit through narrow passages and then reassembled. In their paper, which was published in the journal Science Advances, the team talks about how they made their tiny soft robot and what they could be used for.
Engineers all over the world are continuously developing new techniques for creating soft robot as the science of robotics develops. The ferrofluid (magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles) used in this new effort was created by the researchers and was suspended in clear oil. In order to control the robot, external magnets are used.
The researchers point out that a robot made of a material that is only very weakly held together enables the change of its shape on demand. They demonstrated that it was possible to guide their robot through a maze by using various magnetic fields, at times changing the robot’s shape to get around obstacles. For instance, they forced it to lengthen in order to fit through a small opening. In order to get it through a porous material, they also divided it into the desired number of smaller pieces. The robot was then simply put back together into a single round robot shape in both instances and continued on its journey. They point out that a robot of this type could be produced in a wide range of sizes.
The tiny soft robot might be used in medical procedures to deliver medications to parts of the body that are challenging to reach, like the brain or lung nodes. The development of a magnetic control system that can precisely penetrate bone like the skull is the design’s most obvious hurdle that needs to be overcome before it can be used in practical applications. Others have pointed out that such a robotic system might be helpful in lab-on-a-chip devices, which carry out chemical processes for jobs like virus detection. The tiny new robots might be used to transport the reaction-related chemicals.
