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Nature 458, 1121-1122 (30 April 2009) | doi:10.1038/4581121a; Published online 29 April 2009

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Miniature devices: Voyage of the microrobots

Metin Sitti1

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Nanobots — tiny robots that can be injected into the body to perform medical procedures — are the stuff of science fiction. Swimming microrobots propelled by artificial flagella bring that fantasy closer to reality.

In the classic film Fantastic Voyage, a miniaturized submarine and its crew are injected into a coma victim in a perilous mission to destroy the blood clot that threatens the patient's life. Far-fetched as this might seem, tiny, tetherless robots — albeit without a human crew — might one day be able to access small spaces inside the human body that can currently be reached only using invasive surgical methods.

  1. Metin Sitti is in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 320 Scaife Hall, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213-3890, USA.
    Email: sitti@cmu.edu

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