William Atkins
Wednesday, 21 January 2009 04:42
Science -
Biology
Page 2 of 3
The title of the article is “
Piezoelectric ultrasonic resonant motor with stator diameter less than 250 μm: the Proteus motor.”
It is authored by B. Watch,
James Friend, and L. Yeo, all from the Micro/Nanophysics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
They state in the abstract to their paper,
“Minimally invasive and in vivo surgery is limited by the ability to provide controllable and powerful motion at scales appropriate for navigation within the human body.”
In addition,
“A motor for in vivo microbot propulsion is presented with a stator diameter of φ250 μm, demonstrating the potential to directly drive a flagellum for swimming at up to 1295 rpm with a torque of 13 nN m."
"The motor uses coupled axial-torsional vibration at 652–682 kHz in a helically cut structure excited by a thickness-polarized piezoelectric element. The output power is 4.25 μW, on the order of what is necessary to navigate small human arteries.”
According to the January 20, 2009 New Scientist article “
Tiny motor could power artery-cruising robots,”
“The simplicity of the way piezoelectric materials turn electricity into motion has attracted engineers trying to build small motors before. But until now such designs have been more complex and delicate than the new design, say the researchers, which has the potential to be scaled down even further.”
James Friend, an author of the study, said in the
Sydney Morning Herald article “
Tiny motor allows robots to swim through human body” that such miniature robots could be able to travel to previously unreachable areas.
Page three talks about some future experiments with the new robot, and a video simulation found on the SMH website.
