Researchers propose robots that climb upstream in blood

Chinese researchers have proposed a strategy for therapeutic millirobots to move upstream in blood vessels, according to a study published in the journal IEEE Xplore.

Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and approximately 80 percent of such deaths are caused by heart attack and stroke.

Despite the many types of millirobots that have been developed for mini-invasive treatment, swimming against the blood flow remains a massive challenge due to the lack of ability to stay still and the strong resistance from the blood flow.

To address these problems, researchers from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have proposed a design scheme for streamlined millirobots that can rotate up the wall of the blood vessels, where the fluid resistance is lower.

Combined with an elliptical design, the fluid resistance of the millirobots was reduced by 58.5 percent compared to conventional robots moving in the center of the blood vessel.

Researchers verified the robot's ability to move against the blood flow using pig blood vessels.

Xinhua