To locate disease in the human body, it would be great if a doctor could get inside and look around. Imaging technology helps, but the resolution of the image isn't always good enough for analysis. On top of that, a lot of the imaging technology, like a magnetic resonance imager, involves large, expensive machines the size of a small room.
That's where something called cyberplasm comes in, a fusion of microelectronics with living functionality. Daniel Frankel of Newcastle University, is leading a UK-based study teamed up with researchers from the National Science Foundation in the United States.
The idea is to have an electronic nervous system (which every robot ultimately has) with sight and smell derived from animal cells. Artificial muscles would be powered by glucose, just as real muscles are. On top of that, the robot would respond to light and chemical stimuli the same way a real creature does.
To start, researchers are looking at the sea lamprey, a jawless fish with a very simple nervous system. That makes it easier to simulate with electronics. The prototypes will be about a half-inch long, with later versions being smaller ââ¬â- even down to the nanometer scale.
Cyberplasmââ¬â¢s sensors will respond to stimuli and convert them into electronic signals, similar to how a real brain works. The electronic ââ¬Ëbrainââ¬â¢ will then tell artificial muscles how to move so the robot can swim.
A robot sensitive to its environment and the ability to swim around inside the body mean the robot can check tumors or blood clots, for instance, or find chemical signatures of a range of diseases. That data can be recorded and used to figure out what's wrong. Aside from creating a new way to diagnos disease, the project could offer insights into building artificial muscles that would work in response to electrical signals.
Source: http://news.discovery.com/tech/cyberplasm-micro-robot-120330.html
That's where something called cyberplasm comes in, a fusion of microelectronics with living functionality. Daniel Frankel of Newcastle University, is leading a UK-based study teamed up with researchers from the National Science Foundation in the United States.
The idea is to have an electronic nervous system (which every robot ultimately has) with sight and smell derived from animal cells. Artificial muscles would be powered by glucose, just as real muscles are. On top of that, the robot would respond to light and chemical stimuli the same way a real creature does.
To start, researchers are looking at the sea lamprey, a jawless fish with a very simple nervous system. That makes it easier to simulate with electronics. The prototypes will be about a half-inch long, with later versions being smaller ââ¬â- even down to the nanometer scale.
Cyberplasmââ¬â¢s sensors will respond to stimuli and convert them into electronic signals, similar to how a real brain works. The electronic ââ¬Ëbrainââ¬â¢ will then tell artificial muscles how to move so the robot can swim.
A robot sensitive to its environment and the ability to swim around inside the body mean the robot can check tumors or blood clots, for instance, or find chemical signatures of a range of diseases. That data can be recorded and used to figure out what's wrong. Aside from creating a new way to diagnos disease, the project could offer insights into building artificial muscles that would work in response to electrical signals.
Source: http://news.discovery.com/tech/cyberplasm-micro-robot-120330.html
