Micro and nano robots are the new favorite of technology companies. Well, what kind of tasks do these predictions assign to these robots; how will they change our lives?
Greek origin; The word “nano”, meaning small, tiny, is a unit of measure corresponding to one billionth of a meter. Nanotechnology describes technologies that focus on producing and achieving small structures between 1-100 nanometers. These nanoparticles attract attention with their light and sensitive structures, high conductivity and solubility, and enable new products in agriculture as well as in biomedical, environmental engineering and energy sectors.
The use of micro and nanotechnologies in robotics not only reduces the size of the robots, but also makes them more functional. The most difficult point in the development of micro-robots is the production of micro-actuators, micro sensors that can provide high efficiency and stability. To overcome these problems, researchers and scientists combine the work of Micro / Nano Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS, NEMS), nanotechnology and biotechnology.
Under the city, in life
As the vast underground pipelines in the UK began to pose problems over time, scientists began to seek different solutions to this problem. One of these solutions is micro robots. The ability to repair sewage, pipelines and other infrastructure components by micro-robots has prevented the excavation of roads many times.
Four British universities design robotic devices with a length of 1 cm with a state investment of approximately 7 million euros. These robots will be able to detect and repair broken pipes and other lines. In this way, it is aimed to eliminate the cost of approximately 5 billion pounds of traffic blocked roads and disrupted work flow.
In addition, 14 more projects in the UK are supported by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund with a state budget of £ 19.6 million. With these projects, robots that are capable of carrying out work in dangerous places such as offshore wind power plants and nuclear waste centers are being produced.
Micro robot capturing cancer cells
Another long-term work is the micro-robots that have the ability to target cancer cells. After long studies, scientists began to express micro-robots that can fight cancer. One of them is Bacteriobot…
Bacteriobot is the world's first medical robot developed by Chonnam National University in South Korea. This robot is the result of the attachment of genetically modified harmless bacteria to a part and attacks especially tumor cells. These robots are injected directly into the blood and they travel through the body to detect and destroy cancer cells. Robots don't touch healthy cells. Thus, patients are not exposed to the side effects of a challenging treatment such as chemotherapy. The biggest problem with the use of Bacteriobot is that they are only effective in tissues such as breasts and colon that make up a solid tumor.
Microbots are popular for eye surgery
A micro-robot discovery that redefined eye surgery came from Zurich. The magnetic-guided micro robot OctoMag, produced at the ETH Zurich Multi-Scale Robotics Laboratory (MSRL), is controlled externally and can perform precise operations. Since this micro-robot does not have a battery, it is controlled by creating a three-dimensional magnetic field.
A nano robot developed in partnership with the Chinese National Nanoscience and Technology Center scientists and Arizona State University is only a few hundred nanometers wide. In experiments conducted on mice, the nanobots injected into the blood of the mice cut down the blood flow to the tumors, allowing them to shrink. The working mechanism of the nano-robots is the delivery of the blood coagulator, which is placed in a nano-tube of DNA helix, to the tumor. On the outside of this structure, there is a small DNA molecule that attaches only to tumors. When the robot finds the tumor, it clings to it and dissolves the DNA helix inside, giving it to the tumor.
