Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Roboscallop for drug delivery
It's not Fantastic Voyage, but researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands developed a tiny robot that someday may shuttle a payload of drugs through the human body. Interestingly, the tiny tubular device--just a few millimeters long by 750 microns in diameter--propels itself along like a sea scallop. Soundwaves cause a bubble inside to expand and contract, alternately pushing out and sucking in fluid from one end. From New Scientist:
Because the roboscallop is powered by sound waves, it needs no internal power source or connecting wires. "You could drive one inside the human body by placing the skin in contact with a loudspeaker," says (physicist Claus-Dieter) Ohl. The sound needed to drive the device is loud but bearable, the researchers say.
But the current speed of the roboscallop is just a few millimetres per second, so it needs to be improved before it could swim against the flow of blood inside a body. "You'd probably need about 10 mm/s, an increase of a factor of 3 or 4," says Ohl.
This could be achieved, he says, by building a nozzle onto the tube, like a rocket engine, to maximise the thrust it generates. Ohl imagines the device swimming to a blood clot before delivering an anti-clotting drug.