Artificial Intelligence and Robotics blog
Posts tagged miniature robot
HeartLander: Miniature mobile robot for minimally invasive cardiac therapy
Feb 23rd
One of the most promising application areas for robotics and more specifically miniature and nano robotics is in medicine. Whether the tiny robots are specifically designed to deliver medications or directly attack viruses, their usefulness in prolonging our lives and eliminating the pain and suffering of disease is indisputable. I am always happy to read about recent advances in medical robotics that bring us one step closer to such devices. This post is about HeartLander, a miniature medical robot under development at CMU’s Robotics Institute; the robot is designed for performing minimally invasive cardiac therapy.
So how does the robot work?
Basically, a surgeon creates a small incision on the patient’s chest. Using a pair of forceps, the surgeon places the robot directly on the beating heart. Using a joystick, he can then guide the robot delivering medicine directly to affected areas, helping to attach pacemaker electrodes or even assisting with specialized techniques for curing arrhythmia. The worm-like robot moves using an ingenious mechanism driven by miniature ultrasonic piezoelectric motors.
Although the robot is still a proof of concept, the CMU research team has been able to demonstrate its use on a pig’s beating heart (see the video at the end of this post.) The team still has to work out a number of issues such as the development of wireless remote control mechanism in order to eliminate the reliance on a tether whose stiffness causes problems with locomotion. The same tether is used to supply energy to HeartLander although a future production version would most likely utilize an on-board battery. This is an excellent and very promising research project and I am looking forward to the next generation of HeartLander.
Note: The image and video are copyright CMU.
Miniature jumping robot
Oct 22nd
Efficient locomotion for minaiture robots is a hard task due to the “Size Grain Hypothesis” which simply describes how the rugocity of the environment increases as the size of the agent (robot in this case) decreases. That is the smaller the robot, the bigger the obstacles. To circumvent the inneficiencies of crawling, walking, or running for miniature robots, researchers at EPFL are exploring jumping as a more efficient approach (others have also developed jumping robots.)
The result of their efforts is a miniature jumping robot that weighs 7 grams and is only 5cm tall. Using a clever design, the researchers have created a prototype robot that can jump as high as 1.4 meters which is more than 27 times its own height. The new robot can jump an order of magnitude higher than all other existing jumping robots.
So, how does it work? The short description as given by the researchers in a recently published paper is the following.
It employs elastic elements in a four bar linkage leg system to allow for very powerful jumps and adjustment of the jumping force, take-off angle and force profile during the acceleration phase.
The following video shows the robot in action; the slow motion footage is worth its bandwidth in gold!
BAE Systems to develop miniature robots for military
Jul 14th
The military is looking to BAE Systems to lead a team of scientists in creating mini robots to improve the army’s situational awareness. The $38 million agreement will hopefully lead to machines that will improve the army’s ability to work in dangerous and foreign areas.
The team is looking to create an assortment of autonomous robots, which can serve to get information in areas which are too harmful for humans to go to. In the modern world information is everything and the military hopes that this project will lead to more knowledge on the battlefield, which can certainly mean lives saved.
The robots will be small and multifunctional. Some of the features will vary depending on what particular robot it is, but they will all be similar in purpose. Although not much more is known about the robots and how they will look and function, we do know that they will need to hide themselves in many cases. A rendition of a potential BAE robot for this project is a spider, which can be seen in the image to the left. It doesn’t look overly complex, but you can bet that these bots will have quite some sophisticated technology inside of them.
It will be interesting to see what the group of scientists comes up with. Currently the timeframe seems to be five years, with an option to extend it for another five. Due to the group’s extensive resources in both money and personnel, we can expect something revolutionary once they are done, whether it is in 5, 10, or 15 years.
Miniature medical robot developed in Israel
Jun 27th
The Jerusalem Post is reporting on a newly developed miniature medical robot that is a huge leap forward in this field. The 1 millimeter sized robot is the result of collaboration between Dr. Nir Schwalb of the Judea and Samaria College in Ariel and Oded Solomon of the mechanical engineering department of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. The tiny robot is designed to enter a patient’s bloodstream and deliver medical treatment as necessary.
It is too early to know what medical uses the robot will have, but they suggest the possibility of being involved in brachytherapy, in which cancer patients are exposed to short-distance adiotherapy from a source placed inside or next to the area requiring treatment. Brachytherapy is commonly used to treat localized prostate cancer and cancers of the head and neck. In addition, numerous robots could be used simultaneously to deal with a large number of metastases (malignant tumors spread through the body).
One interesting aspect of this tiny remote controlled robot is the way it is powered. Instead of receiving power from an on board battery, the robot moves utilizing an external magnetic field that does not harm the patient. The end result is that the robot can operate for an unlimited amount of time before it must be removed. This makes it suitable for treatments over long periods of time.
I really like the idea behind the development of such medical robots. I can imagine (or at least, I wish of) a future where tiny robots enter our bodies and fight viruses or destroy cancer cells. Even better, given the proper materials, such robots could be used to reconstruct damaged tissue; imagine the ability to perform surgery without the need to cut people open!
Obviously the robot is still in the development stage but it is a large step forward. Scientists still have to equip the robot with sensors and actuators that it can use to perform the medical procedures they envision for it; and making it a bit smaller probably wouldn’t hurt either.
Illustration of the miniature robot is probably copyright the Jerusalem Post.
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