Challis Hodge’s UXblog

A Chiang Mai University team has developed a motor so small it will power a microscopic robot on an expedition through human blood vessels.

Boffins at the university’s science faculty describe their invention as a “nanomotor”. It will drive a medical robot about the size of a blood cell on a tour of the maze of human veins and capillaries.

A “nanobot” - or nanotechnology robot - developed at Kent State University in Ohio, United States will be powered by a motor made of an extremely fine and pure ceramic created at Chiang Mai University.

In addition to powering the nanobot, the piezoceramic - also known as “smart ceramics” - motor will navigate the machine on its exploration for such things as tiny tumours in internal organs.

It is remote controlled by either low-voltage electric current or microwaves, explains head researcher Assoc Prof Supon Ananta.

Microsoft believes the demand for consumer, research, and military robots will grow significantly–and it wants to own the market, with Microsoft Robotics Studio (MSRS) and the Institute for Personal Robots in Education (IPRE).

MSRS is a visual programming environment, similar to the LabView-based software provided with LEGO’s Mindstorms NXT kit. It allows users to drag and drop box-like symbols for simple, low-level behaviors and services (such as accessing a sensor) and string them together to create complex robotic programs.

MSRS also uses the AGEIA PhysX physics engine, which powers many PC games, to provide a visual simulation of the robot and its environment, complete with realistic friction, drag, gravity, and other factors.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are aiming to create biologically inspired “roboflies” — tiny, inexpensive, quick-moving robots they can send into space for planetary exploration. Imagine swarms of inexpensive robots seeking out life in other galaxies. The concept is simple really, just as schooling fish and flocking birds have evolved to take advantage of the increased odds of survival so too would the robots. Of course there are the usual military applications as well. Check the Roboflies out here.