Plant-based materials will probably be the constructing blocks for soft medical microrobots

A team of University of Waterloo researchers has created smart, advanced materials that will probably be the constructing blocks for a future generation of sentimental medical microrobots. 

These tiny robots have the potential to conduct medical procedures, similar to biopsy, and cell and tissue transport, in a minimally invasive fashion. They’ll move through confined and flooded environments, just like the human body, and deliver delicate and light-weight cargo, similar to cells or tissues, to a goal position.

The tiny soft robots are a maximum of 1 centimeter long and are bio-compatible and non-toxic. The robots are manufactured from advanced hydrogel composites that include sustainable cellulose nanoparticles derived from plants.

This research, led by Hamed Shahsavan, a professor within the Department of Chemical Engineering, portrays a holistic approach to the design, synthesis, fabrication, and manipulation of microrobots. The hydrogel utilized in this work changes its shape when exposed to external chemical stimulation. The flexibility to orient cellulose nanoparticles at will enables researchers to program such shape-change, which is crucial for the fabrication of functional soft robots.

In my research group, we’re bridging the old and latest. We introduce emerging microrobots by leveraging traditional soft matter like hydrogels, liquid crystals, and colloids.”

Shahsavan, Director, Smart Materials for Advanced Robotic Technologies (SMART-Lab)

The opposite unique component of this advanced smart material is that it’s self-healing, which allows for programming a wide selection in the form of the robots. Researchers can cut the fabric and paste it back together without using glue or other adhesives to form different shapes for various procedures. 

The fabric might be further modified with a magnetism that facilitates the movement of sentimental robots through the human body. As proof of concept of how the robot would maneuver through the body, the tiny robot was moved through a maze by researchers controlling its movement using a magnetic field.

“Chemical engineers play a critical role in pushing the frontiers of medical microrobotics research,” Shahsavan said. “Interestingly, tackling the numerous grand challenges in microrobotics requires the skillset and knowledge chemical engineers possess, including heat and mass transfer, fluid mechanics, response engineering, polymers, soft matter science, and biochemical systems. So, we’re uniquely positioned to introduce modern avenues on this emerging field”.

The subsequent step on this research is to scale the robot right down to submillimeter scales.

Shahsavan’s research group collaborated with Waterloo’s Tizazu Mekonnen, a professor from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Professor Shirley Tang, Associate Dean of Science (Research), and Amirreza Aghakhani, a professor from the University of Stuttgart in Germany. They published their results last month in Nature Communications.

Professor Hamed Shahsavan designs smart programmable soft robotsPlay

Image Credit: University of Waterloo