Physical Intelligence Department, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, 70569, Stuttgart, Germany.
Institute for Biomedical Engineering, ETH Zürich, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland.
Nat Commun. 2023 Jun 20;14(1):3320. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-38689-x.
Untethered magnetic miniature soft robots capable of accessing hard-to-reach regions can enable safe, disruptive, and minimally invasive medical procedures. However, the soft body limits the integration of non-magnetic external stimuli sources on the robot, thereby restricting the functionalities of such robots. One such functionality is localised heat generation, which requires solid metallic materials for increased efficiency. Yet, using these materials compromises the compliance and safety of using soft robots. To overcome these competing requirements, we propose a pangolin-inspired bi-layered soft robot design. We show that the reported design achieves heating > 70 °C at large distances > 5 cm within a short period of time <30 s, allowing users to realise on-demand localised heating in tandem with shape-morphing capabilities. We demonstrate advanced robotic functionalities, such as selective cargo release, in situ demagnetisation, hyperthermia and mitigation of bleeding, on tissue phantoms and ex vivo tissues.
无束缚的磁性微型软体机器人能够进入难以到达的区域,可以实现安全、颠覆性和微创的医疗程序。然而,软体身体限制了非磁性外部刺激源在机器人上的集成,从而限制了此类机器人的功能。其中一个功能是局部发热,这需要使用固体金属材料来提高效率。然而,使用这些材料会影响使用软体机器人的顺应性和安全性。为了克服这些相互竞争的需求,我们提出了一种穿山甲启发的双层软体机器人设计。我们表明,所报道的设计在短时间内<30 秒内,在>5 厘米的大距离处实现了>70°C 的加热,允许用户与形状变形能力一起实现按需局部加热。我们在组织模型和离体组织上展示了高级机器人功能,如选择性货物释放、原位去磁、高热和止血。
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