Nanobots Harness Swarms Of Bacteria To Move
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 18 of May , 2009 at 3:39 am
Why spend time and energy trying to develop a nano-sized robot motor when you can just wrangle up a couple thousand bacteria to push you around? Researchers at the NanoRobotics Laboratory at the École Polytechnique de Montréal have created robots that measure only 300 micrometers on a side, complete with a solar panel, a pH sensor, and a communication circuit. When the robot senses elevated pH levels, it sends signals to an external computer, which directs a swarm of bacteria to push the robot towards the area of higher pH.
The bacteria themselves are quite interesting. They produce their own magnetite crystals, which they use to navigate along the Earth’s magnetic field lines looking for nice places to live. They can somehow tell which way they’re going, and they also respond to light, persistently swimming parallel to magnetic field lines when illuminated. It looks like this is how such precise motion is achieved: by changing magnetic fields and illumination, the external computer is able to direct the bacteria exactly where to go.
All of this is happening in a petri dish right now, but sometime somehow the researchers envision using this technique for medical purposes… Since nanobots propelled by thousands of magnetic bacteria is exactly what I want running around inside my body.
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Category: Biorobotics, Nano
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