ViRob - The Only Robot with a Napoleon Complex

ViRob is pretty skinny for a robot, with a diameter of 1 millimeter (length is unspecified) and is capable of travelling up to 9 mm per second through blood vessels, the digestive tract, and the respiratory system.  Travel is facilitated by external magnetic fields that doctors say will not cause harm to the body.  For those who fear that ViRob is just a locomotive pill, guess again.  It has tiny arms that are capable of grabbing onto walls within the body, allowing it to burrow from blood vessels into organs.

Within the organ, ViRob could eventually be used to administer medicine or perform delicate procedures with minimal invasion.  Researchers are eventually hoping that they will be able to outfit the robot with a miniature camera, tongs, or blades.  With those, ViRob will be able to go into the body and directly administer medicine to tumors, retrieve biopsy samples, or take a few pictures for curious doctors.  Still curious?  Take a look at the video below and don’t be alarmed about the French reporter.  All of the interviews are in English.

Although this robot is a neat prototype, don’t expect to see ViRob or anything like it hit clinical use anytime soon.  The biggest issue is size.  Although a one-millimeter robot is tiny by most anybody’s standards, it still seems a bit big to be coursing through the body.  If ViRob just so happens to come across a buildup of cholesterol in a heart-disease patient, it is highly possible that it could get stuck and cause a pre-mature heart attack.

Another pitfall of ViRob’s size is the crawling and burrowing mechanisms.  It seems that a millimeter diameter hole in any organ would not be a pleasant experience and that it could possibly cause damage as the robot enters and exits various organs in routine checkups.  The same could be said about the feet with which ViRob grabs onto the tissue.  While it might not damage too many cells, a malfunctioning robot could easily wreak havoc inside of the body.

Here on Singularity Hub, we think that the idea of tiny robots swimming through our bodies has a bright future.  However, the man-made travellers that may one day flow freely through the body will not be very similar to the mechanized metal robots that we now know and love.  In fact, we probably won’t even call them robots.  It is more likely that they would take the form of nanoparticles and macrophages and take on the roles of cells to boost the immune system.  They will not have batteries (nor does ViRob) or mechanized parts, but will float through the body and attach to different receptors by chemical means.  It is more likely that this will become commonplace in hospitals of the future rather than robots like the ViRob and, though they might not be as exciting, they will get the job done.

Although the ViRob will probably not be the robot that invades the body and cures diseases, it is still a great concept that deserves mention.  The research done in this project could be directly applied to future solutions that are more practical.  What really matters is that the fantasies of fiction writers are now becoming everyday occurrences.  The ViRob is not going to squirm through our intestines anytime soon, but the prospect of it is what drives our excitement.

Simplify, Man

Recently, we’ve shown you robots that are complex enough to take care of living things, and robots that are advanced enough to respond to thoughts. Those wacky Canadians at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, however, have decided to explore the other end of robotics. Simplify, man. Professor Mir Beharad Khamesee, director of the Maglev Microrobotics Lab, has created a micro robot without a power source or control wires — it’s basically just a pair of tiny tweezers. Oh, and it flies.

This MEMS robot, just a few millimeters across, is dwarfed by a Canadian penny.

The microbot is actually an example of a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS), tiny machines that work using electromagnetic techniques. They could be adapted for micro sized assembly, manipulating tiny scientific samples, or even performing microsurgery. Khamesee’s MEMS robot flies by using magnetism. The tweezers of the robot, or microgrippers, are attached to permanent magnets. These magnets are lifted by magnetic fields generated by electric coils. As those fields change, the robot flies through space. No strings, no engines, just magnets.

Watching it hover is almost eerie, like seeing a flying acrobat on an invisible trapeze:

With great precision comes great responsibility

The precision of the robot’s flight is remarkable. Sensor feedback is constantly guiding the coils controlling the magnetic field to adjust the robot’s movements. It can be positioned with an accuracy of 13 microns in a relatively large volume (18 cm3). The use of magnetic levitation (maglev) allows it to sit on irregular surfaces, or hover above a surface and travel without friction or adhesion. These are major improvements over other small scale robots that may move by sliding or rolling across a surface. The maglev robot won’t leave a trail or disturb what it manipulates. [Sort of like a tiny flying robotic boy scout]

That manipulation comes from the robot’s microgrippers. Here again, the Khamesee team has engineered its way around needing a power source. The microgrippers are opened and closed through the clever use of heat. A laser pointed at the tiny circle on the grippers will heat them and cause them to open. As the grippers cool, they close. A simple system, but precise enough to move items only 100 microns (0.1 mm) in diameter.

The microgrippers will open as a laser heats them, and then close again when the laser is turned off.

What makes the flying microbot unique, maglev flight and precision, will also make it useful. The high maneuverability of maglev flight will allow the robot to enter twisted and moving systems. Without control wires or a power source, it is essentially dust free. This makes the robot perfect for clean room applications. The controls of the robot: magnetic fields and lasers, can pass through transparent sealed surfaces, allowing it to be used for hazardous environments. Because it never touches anything besides the items it is manipulating, the robot is perfect for delicate work such as microsurgery.

“We are the first in the world to make such a floating robot equipped with micro-grippers. It can enter virtually any space and can be operated in a sealed enclosure by a person outside, which makes it useful for handling biohazardous materials or working in vacuum chambers and clean rooms.” –Khamasee

With a robot as elegantly simple as Khamasee’s, the promise of future applications is strong. Those in the industry may wish to check out his upcoming papers in IEEE and ASME. Once applications are proven, the next step would likely be a system for controlling multiple MEMS robots at the same time. As Prof. Khamasee’s work continues, the University of Waterloo may prove that simple solutions are often the best.