Coming soon: robots for injecting into the human body

Exciting times ahead. A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a cell-sized battery that works by capturing oxygen from the air. The oxygen is used to oxidise zinc which can create a current of up to 1V. This is enough to power a small circuit, actuator or sensor, and thus a tiny robot. Efforts are therefore now being made to design such a tiny robot, a robot small enough to be injected into the human body that could be powered by these cell-sized batteries. These robots could seek out a target site within the body and release a drug such as insulin.

This could make for a very convenient, potentially life changing, means of drug delivery for reliant individuals. The researchers are envisaging that the robots will be made of biocompatible materials that would break apart when no longer needed. The next step then looks to be increasing the voltage of the battery, to open up the doors to their use in additional applications. It will be really interesting to see how quickly this progresses!