3D printed micro robots could repair injuries inside the human body

Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a new type of 3D printed robot. It is about two-millimeters long, the size of the world’s smallest ant and has been 3D printed using two-photon polymerization lithography (TPP). These 3D printed micro robots are vibration-powered, they respond to piezoelectric actuators, ultrasound sources and even tiny speakers in order to move.

As you might have noticed, there has been an emergence in micro scale 3D printing over the last months. Recently, we told you about Nanofabrica – the startup announced the commercial launch of micron resolution 3D printing technology in March. The CEO of Nanofabrica had explained, “There is an inexorable shift towards miniaturisation, with many applications demanding extremely exacting levels of micron and sub-micron precision on macro and micro parts and there is huge potential for an AM platform that can service this trend.” We also reported on Nanoscribe’s two-photon polymerization (2PP) technology, that enables nano, micro and mesoscale fabrication.

Credits: Allison Carter, Georgia Tec

So, what is the purpose of these tiny robots? Apparently, they could serve for many applications. For example, swarms of them could work together to sense environmental changes, move materials, or perhaps even repair injuries inside the human body. Azadeh Ansari, an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech explains, “We are working to make the technology robust, and we have a lot of potential applications in mind. We are working at the intersection of mechanics, electronics, biology and physics. It’s a very rich area and there’s a lot of room for multidisciplinary concepts.”