Scared of surgeries and injections? Guess what, there is a new method to take medicines to parts of your body that is otherwise not accessible. A tiny robot with ‘caterpillar’ legs will come to your rescue and could be used to carry drugs inside the human body. How strong you think a caterpillar can? Well, don’t judge by size as Researchers behind the technology say it has the equivalent strength of a human able to lift a 26-seat minibus. The robot’s body thickness is around 0.15mm, with each conical leg measuring 0.65mm long and the gap between the legs measuring about 0.6mm, making the leg-length-to-gap ratio around 1:1.
It can adapt to adverse environments and move efficiently along surfaces within the body lined with, or entirely immersed in, body fluids such as blood or mucus. This ‘milli-robot’ has hundreds of less than one millimetre long pointed legs that look like tiny hairs. The pointed legs of robot ‘greatly reduced’ their contact area and hence the friction with the surface.
Lab tests showed that it was capable of carrying a load 100 times heavier than itself, a strength comparable to an ant, one of the strongest creatures in nature. But yes, in order for this caterpillar to work its charm you have to swallow the device or receive it through a cavity in the skin. Are you ready for it?
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