【大師講壇】第260期:體內可操控微型醫用機器人
Wireless small-scale medical robots have the unique capability of navigating, operating and staying inside hard-to-reach, tight, risky and deep sites inside our body. This talk reports our recent milli- and microscale wireless miniature medical robots down to cell size that could achieve various minimally invasive medical functions, such as targeted active drug delivery, neural stimulation, clot opening, liquid biopsy, biofluid pumping, cauterization, and hyperthermia. Due to miniaturization limitations on on-board actuation, powering, sensing, computing and communication, new materials and methods need to be introduced in creating and controlling such robots. Moreover, they need to be tracked under medical imaging modalities, such as ultrasound, fluoroscopy, photoacoustic imaging, and MRI, for their precise and safe operation. 3D microprinting and assembly-based fabrication methods and biocompatible and multifunctional soft composites with embedded micro/nanomaterials are proposed to create novel medical milli/microrobots. Soft-bodied medical miniature robot designs enable active shape programming-based adaptive, multimodal and multifunctional navigation and functions, and safe operation. External physical forces, such as magnetic fields, acoustic waves and light, and physical or chemical (e.g., catalytic) interactions with the operation medium are used to actuate and steer such miniature robots wirelessly as a single robot or robot collectives. These robots are aimed to save lives of more patients by curing diseases not possible or hard to cure and decrease the side effects and invasiveness of disease treatments drastically.
無線小型醫療機器人擁有獨特的導航、操作能力,并能駐留在人體內難以觸及、狹窄、危險和深處的部位。本次報告將介紹我們近期研發的毫米級至微米級(小至細胞尺寸)無線微型醫療機器人,它們能夠實現多種微創醫療功能,例如靶向主動給藥、神經刺激、血栓清除、液體活檢、生物流體泵送、燒灼和高溫治療。
由于在機載驅動、供能、傳感、計算和通信方面存在微型化限制,需要引入新材料和新方法來創建和控制此類機器人。此外,為了確保其操作的精確性和安全性,需要在超聲、熒光透視、光聲成像和磁共振成像(MRI)等醫學成像模態下對它們進行跟蹤定位。
我們提出采用三維微打印和基于組裝的制造方法,以及嵌入微/納米材料的生物相容性多功能軟復合材料,來制造新型醫療毫米/微米機器人。軟體醫療微型機器人設計能夠實現基于主動形狀編程的自適應、多模式和多功能的導航與操作,并確保安全運行。
利用外部物理力(如磁場、聲波和光)以及與操作介質發生的物理或化學(例如催化)相互作用,可以無線驅動和引導此類微型機器人,無論是單個機器人還是機器人集群。這些機器人旨在通過治療目前無法或難以治愈的疾病來挽救更多患者的生命,并大幅降低疾病治療的副作用和侵入性。
Metin Sitti
美國國家工程院院士,歐洲科學院院士,土耳其科學院院士,土耳其科奇大學校長