Media release

From: Springer Nature

A pangolin-inspired tiny medical robot

A pangolin-inspired small robot designed to perform safe and minimally invasive medical procedures inside of the body is described in a study published in Nature Communications this week. The untethered, soft robots may one day be capable of accessing hard-to-reach regions inside of the body — such as in the stomach and small intestine — by morphing their shape.

Magnetic soft robots and robots formed of solid metals have previously been developed for minimally invasive medical procedures, but their functionality and safety has been limited. Despite having keratin scales, pangolins can move with flexible and unencumbered motion by organising their rigid scales into an overlapping structure.

Inspired by pangolins, Metin Sitti and colleagues designed a millirobot, 1 cm by 2 cm by 0.2 mm in size, with an overlapping scale design and on-demand heating, shape-morphing, and rolling capabilities. In proof-of-concept experiments in the laboratory, the robots were able to heat to 70°C and perform medical treatments on tissues with potential future clinical applications, including hyperthermia to treat cancer or stop bleeding in hard-to-reach regions. Additionally, the robots are capable of demagnetizing to release cargo onto the tissues, which could be used to deliver drugs in the future.

Although further testing is required, this technology could be a useful clinical tool for the delivery of therapeutic payloads and heat therapy applications.