Stronger together: miniature robots in convoy for endoscopic surgery

Miniature robots on the millimeter scale often lack the strength to transport instruments for endoscopic microsurgery through the body. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) are now combining several millimeter-sized TrainBots into one unit and equipping them with improved "feet." For the first time, the DKFZ team was able to perform an electric surgical procedure on a bile duct obstruction experimentally with a robotic convoy.

The list of conceivable applications for miniature robots in medicine is long: from targeted drug application to sensing tasks and surgical procedures. An arsenal of robots has already been developed and tested for this range of tasks, from the nanometer to the centimeter scale.

However, the little helpers available today reach their limits in many tasks. For example, in endoscopic microsurgery. The required instruments are often too heavy for a single millimeter-sized robot to carry to its destination. Another common problem is that ...