Nanomachines, an integral part of sci-fi that may be used to provide various benefits to the human body, are small machines or robots whose dimensions are measured in nanometer. Such devices have only existed in fiction so far.

But a research paper published recently in the journal Nature Communications shows strong evidence that suggests such machines, which may not necessarily be as small, may be a reality in the future.

The paper mentions a medium that may be used to create robots equipped with the means to transport drugs to specific parts in the body through the bloodstream, as well as to provide the help needed when in the middle of difficult operations.

Making a breakthrough in this direction, a prototype shape-shifting robot that imitates a bacterium and whose tail folds away upon entering the bloodstream has been designed by researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale Lausanne (EPFL) and the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETHZ).

These bio-inspired micro-robots, as per researchers, are soft, flexible and motor-less. For creating them, biocompatible hydrogel and magnetic nanoparticles that serve two purposes were used. The nanoparticles not only give the robots their shape during the manufacturing process but they also react to electromagnetic fields, prompting them to swim and move whenever the fields are applied.

“Contrary to their small size, the process to create these robots is quite involved. To start, the nanoparticles are placed inside layers of a biocompatible hydrogel. Next, the team applied an electromagnetic field to orientate the nanoparticles at different parts of the microbots, followed by a polymerization step for the solidification of the hydrogel”, said a researcher involved with the project.

Afterward, the robot is placed underwater, where it folds in specific ways depending on the nanoparticles' orientation inside the gel, allowing scientists to form the final 3D architecture of the microbot, the researcher added.