Tumbling magnetic microbots have drug delivery potential

Engineers at Purdue University have devised this highly unusual mode of locomotion for constructions measuring around 400 by 800µm, which can act as medical microbots inside the body.

Medical microbots might bring to mind the miniaturised submarine in the classic science fiction film Fantastic Voyage, but in reality they are less likely to be surgical devices than to be drug delivery vehicles that can be guided and steered to deliver their payload at a specific point in the body. It is the guidance system that has proved to be the biggest challenge in developing such systems.

Magnetic fields have for some time been an attractive method of guiding and propelling microbots, but very strong fields have, until now, always been necessary. The Purdue team, led by David Cappelleri, director of the Multiscale Robotics and Automation Lab in the University's School of Mechanical Engineering, devised its new approach by building in magnetism to the robot itself.