Studying the deepest secrets of the human brain is no mean feat, however, if a tiny micro-nanoRobotGoing to the brain to explore, maybe it will help a lot. It’s a whimsical and tantalizing idea, however, the question is how to direct the movements of these tiny robots.
from the National Polytechnic University of Athens (National Technical University of Athens) has proposed the use of bat sonic positioning and hunting to direct the movement and positioning of nanorobots, and presented at the IEEE Medical and Biological Society meeting in Orlando, Florida, last month. (IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society meeting) reported computer simulation results, saying that just four microrobots were able to locate a small tumor in minutes.
Engineers all over the world are working on developing nanorobots of all kinds, especially robots that can control the release of drugs in the human body. However, the research team of Panagiotis Katrakazas from the National Polytechnic University of Athens is more interested in using nanorobots to probe the hard-to-find brain damage deep inside the brain.
“The whole idea is to inject nanorobots into the human body, use the movement of the nanorobots in the brain to find the exact location of the injury, and then use drugs or surgery to treat the injury later,” Katrakazas said. Katrakazas’ team is currently studying the ability to move along neurons. Cell-crawling nanobots that “pink” a neuron to see if it’s healthy: healthy neurons respond with electrical signals, but damaged neurons don’t.
The biggest challenge, however, is getting the nanorobots to work together. Katrakazas came up with an algorithm to describe the behavior of bat swarms, built by other researchers based on the sonic signals bats emit to navigate and hunt for food. Katrakazas’ team has now applied the algorithm to an EEG (electroencephalography scanner)-like device that sends sound waves to a subject wearing the device in a manner that mimics a bat.
The team hopes to use the acoustic signals to navigate micro-nano robots in the brain, and says it has tested the approach using simulations. However, there is still a long way to go before such “bat” nanorobots can be tested in humans.
The primary problem, says Roderich Gross from the University of Sheffield, UK, is that it’s not yet clear what technology would enable such microrobots to sense and emit sound waves.
Katrakazas said he still expects a system like this to be used in human trials in a few years, adding that “some doctors have expressed interest in it.”
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