Tiny Robots Can Heal By Swimming Through Eyeballs And Blood, But Scientists Still Don’t Know What To Do With It

A microscopic robot has been invented that is able to swim through blood and eyeball fluid in order to help heal sick individuals.

This extraordinary device was created at the Max Planck Institute For Intelligent Systems. The German-based company has revealed that the robotic scallops are so tiny you can barely see them with the naked eye.

Scientists at the institute have now confirmed that the robots are able to swim through bodily fluids. This allows them to deliver medicine to parts of the body that usually struggle to receive it. They are also able to repair damaged cells.

They have been called robotic scallops because they imitate the way that a scallop swims. This means that they move back and forth in order to get to their destination, and they achieve this movement by opening and closing their shells at different rates.

Researchers and scientists have now confirmed that they believe this is integral to their design for a number of reasons.

According to Engadget, “moving backward and forward is the best way to swim through non-Newtonian fluids, or liquids that can grow thicker or thinner.” This is just like the fluid that is in our body, which unlike water, doesn’t retain its viscosity.

Another reason why scientists believe that the imitation of a scallop is important is because it means that they don’t need much power in order to move in this fashion. Plus they also don’t need a motor or battery to move, just the energy that comes from an external magnetic field.

However, despite the fact that there are clearly a number of positive attributes to this invention, there is still a slight problem. The scientists who created it don’t actually have anything in mind for the scallop just yet. Instead, they are simply hoping that it will be used by other companies, scientists, and teams as a reference point in medical technology.

You can check out a video of the Swimming Robotic Micro-Scallop in all of its hypothetical glory below.

The team for this invention was led by Professor Peer Fischer, who works for the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany.

Tiny Robots Can Heal By Swimming Through Eyeballs And Blood, But Scientists Still Don’t Know What To Do With It