Healthcare (Commonwealth Union) – New technologies has given hope to the possibilities of transforming surgical treatment. Nanobots and other microscopic devices have shown the potential to transform the nature of surgery, giving surgeons less invasive options.
Scientists from Singapore at the Nanyang Technological University, (NTU) have created a tiny robot, about the size of a seed, that can travel across soft and uneven surfaces and carry out five different surgical tasks wirelessly. The breakthrough could help make future surgeries and medical procedures more accurate and less invasive.
Measuring only 4.4 millimetres long and operated using weak magnetic fields, the miniature robot can move, cut biological tissue, deliver drugs, collect and store tissue samples, or generate heat remotely. It can switch between these functions in less than a second.
The research, led by Associate Professor Lum Guo Zhan from NTU’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, was recently published in the academic journal Advanced Materials.
Using magnetic coils in a laboratory setting to guide the robot remotely, the researchers demonstrated its ability to deploy various tools and perform different tasks. These included activating a tiny blade to cut tissue and directing heat to a specific area, a capability that could support emerging cancer treatments that rely on targeted heating techniques.
Associate Professor Lum, a leading expert in soft, flexible miniature robots indicated that a majority of magnetic robots of this type are limited to just one or two tasks and their newest design can perform five, and our ultimate aim is for physicians to guide these tiny robots inside the body, steer them to precise locations, and use them to carry out treatments.
Researchers around the world are exploring mini robots as a potential way to make medical procedures and surgeries less invasive, safer, and more accurate.
In the future, such devices could enable doctors to perform highly targeted operations deep within the body without making large incisions or relying on cumbersome surgical tools.
The engagement of a major robotics hurdle was a key factor for the researchers. To pack multiple capabilities into a robot just a few millimetres in size, the NTU team created a movement-control system that responds to magnetic fields and can be reprogrammed in less than a second.
At the core of the device is a magnetic component that can be magnetised, demagnetised, and reprogrammed with different magnetic orientations.
Each magnetic configuration triggers a specific capability, enabling the single mobile robot to carry out five distinct tasks, such as cutting and gripping tissue.
The research team also designed separate sections of the robot so that only a targeted area responds to a given magnetic field, while the remaining sections remain unaffected.
As a result, a single part of the robot can change shape and activate a particular tool or function when exposed to a magnetic field, while the rest of the robot stays stationary and retains its existing form. This overcomes a key challenge that has limited the development of miniature magnetic robots.
The NTU researchers assessed the robot’s surgical capabilities using biological tissue models, such as chicken liver, alongside gelatin-based materials designed to mimic soft tissues.
During laboratory experiments, the robot successfully cut through tissue, released particles that simulated drug delivery, gripped and stored tissue samples, and produced localized heat when activated by magnetic fields.
To generate heat, the team applied a high-frequency alternating magnetic field, which caused the robot’s internal magnetic components to heat up remotely—a technique relevant to magnetic hyperthermia approaches currently being studied for cancer treatment.
The researchers also tested the biocompatibility of the robot’s materials by exposing them to human skin cells in laboratory settings.
“For these robots to move closer to practical use, we need to understand not just how they work in the lab, but how they could be guided, monitored and controlled in realistic medical settings,” said Associate Professor Lum.
