Researchers at CU Boulder have engineered a new class of tiny robots that can zip through liquid at phenomenal speeds. Their hope is that one day they may be able to deliver prescription drugs inside the human body.
This is according to a press release by the institution published Wednesday.
“Imagine if microrobots could perform certain tasks in the body, such as non-invasive surgeries,” said Jin Lee, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.
“Instead of cutting into the patient, we can simply introduce the robots to the body through a pill or an injection, and they would perform the procedure themselves.”
Of course, this development has not come to pass yet, but the innovation is a huge step forward.
The group’s microrobots each measure only 20 micrometers wide, several times smaller than the width of a human hair, and can travel at speeds of about 3 millimeters per second, or roughly 9,000 times their own length per minute.
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