tiny robot

As medical science is doing a great job, new technologies provide power and strength to doctors. The human body is so complicated, and sometimes it’s too difficult to reach a small part of the body. Robotics engineering has created robots that are capable of crawling inside the human intestine. These are miniature robots that stream video and also grebe tissue samples.

As known, the intestine is the part of the alimentary canal that is situated below the stomach. It is the most complicated long and continuous tube that is running from the stomach to the anus. But the University of Colorado’s Advanced Medical Technologies Lab is working hard to design a robotic tank that could move inside the intestine. They named it Endoculus. These robots are not so small and are not big enough that they cannot move.

Parts of the Endoculus

Designing such small parts of the robot is a tricky and complicated process. The whole composition of the robot is as par mentioned below. From the given information, one could have an idea of how it looks exactly.

It needs two motors to bring full control over the movements they are placed parallel to the thread that makes the 3D printed worm gears.

The length is 6.0cm; width is 2.3cm, the height is about 2.3 cm.

Many parts are attached to it like CMOS Camera with LEDs, Forceps/ tool pot, two-three mm LEDs, insufflations/suction and water ports, IMU, Flexible Tether, and independent micro pillared treads.

These are also provided with four sets of treads and angled that helps in providing easy traction against the curved wall. These treads are also covered with small nubs so that they can easily pass through slippery colon mucosa.
It also needs forceps and snares to retrieve tissue samples.

The need for a robotic tank named Endoculus

These are designed to make the colonoscopy easy and smooth. While there are many other methods are used to investigate what is going inside the gut, like the gold-standard method of diagnosis and intervention. As the human body growing older, some part like intestine does not work smoothly. And in that situation Endoculus help to reduce the risk and are cheaper.

Problems that Endoculus faces

No doubt that these help a lot. But the complications arrive when the tip of the endoscopy gets stuck that result is a painful situation. And if it got stuck into the worst condition then, it can produce serious internal injuries. This is the main fear behind the use of Endoculus.

How it gets tested?

Endoculus is injected inside the body of a live pig before injected into the human body. The body formation of the pig is not the same as humans; that’s why it was not able to get that far.

Hopefully, the robot and pig both came out fine after the trial. This is the good news for all the mind of the researcher and scientist behind this creativity.

By Robots Science

Robots Science brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the world of robotics and artificial intelligence. With a keen interest in the latest trends and developments in this field, We are committed to providing readers with insightful and informative content that helps them stay up-to-date on the latest advancements in robotics and AI.