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Abstract: Robotics at small scales has attracted considerable research attention both in its fundamental aspects and potential biomedical applications. As the characteristic dimensions of the robots or machines scaling down to the milli-/microscale or even smaller, they are ideally suited to navigating in tiny and tortuous lumens inside the human body which are hard-to-reach by regular medical devices. Although the materials, structural design, and functionalization of micro-/nanorobots have been studied extensively, several key challenges have not yet been adequately investigated for in vivo applications, such as adaptive locomotion in dynamic physiological environments, in vivo localization with clinical imaging modalities, the efficiency of therapeutic intervention, biosafety, and their autonomy for the intervention tasks.
In this talk, I will first present our recent research progress on development of magnetic miniature robots, from individual and modular designs to the microswarms, for rapid endoluminal delivery. Then the key challenges and perspective of using magnetic miniature robots for localized therapy and clinically relevant applications with a focus on endoluminal procedures will be discussed. |
