Small, Magnetic Robots Aim to Inject Drugs into the Bloodstream

Scientists from the University of Houston and Boston Children’s Hospital presented a new research project they’ve been working on at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

The team has been working on a system of “milirobots” that are capable of swimming through a person’s bloodstream or spinal fluid. The pint-sized robots would move through a patient’s body by external magnetic forces, according to Popular Science.

Once the robots arrive at a trouble spot in the body, like an injury or blocked passageway, the doctors could have them form an electromagnetic gun that can deliver drugs or other forms of relief to these damaged areas.

This project hasn’t reached the bloodstream scale yet, but the researchers released this video, which shows how the robots would operate simulated in water.