InstituteOfRoboticsAndIntelligentSystems
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Researchers experiment with drug-delivering robot... implanted in an eye
If the notion of a tiny robot swimming around in your eye leaves you a bit uneasy then, well, you might want to stop right here. For the rest of you, though, you may be interested in some new tests now being conducted by Michael Kummer and his team of researchers at the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems in Zurich, Switzerland. What you're looking at above is a pig's eye, and the tiny black spec near the top is a microbot that's able to roam around the eye with the aid of an electromagnetic system. While things are still obviously very early, the researchers say the microbots could eventually be used to precisely deliver drugs in humans, and treat issues like macular degeneration. Head on past the break for the video.
Cyborg flies jack into Lego robots semi-Avatar-style
See that? It's a picture of a fly that thinks it's flying around, but it's really navigating a Lego car around a small obstacle course. Researchers at ETH Zurich's Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems developed an impressive visual stimulus tube that tricks said fly into thinking it's navigating the same terrain the camera-mounted robot is in. Then--in a novel twist--a high-speed visual wing-tracking system tells the robot where to roam, based on where the fly thinks it's flying. While it's not exactly what the Na'vi were dealing with, it's close enough to make us a fun combination of fascinated and scared. Pseudo-psychedelic fly stimulus video after the break.
