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IoT and Robotics in Healthcare
Published in Aboul Ella Hassanien, Nilanjan Dey, Surekha Borra, Medical Big Data and Internet of Medical Things, 2018
Varnita Verma, Vinay Chowdary, Mukul Kumar Gupta, Amit Kumar Mondal
Taking a leap ahead for complex operations on the human body such as non-invasive or minimally invasive surgery is a challenging task, leading to the evolution of micromechanics to produce well-equipped microrobots to nanorobots. Nanorobots are also named nanobots, nanoids, nanites or nanomites and can be used for exploration, weaponry, cleaning and stunts placements. These nanites can easily traverse the human body and estimate the exact position and intensity of tissue damage, the presence of cancer cells, the presence of cysts and can localize foreign bodies.
Liquid crystal elastomers: an introduction and review of emerging technologies
Published in Liquid Crystals Reviews, 2018
Sabina W. Ula, Nicholas A. Traugutt, Ross H. Volpe, Ravi R. Patel, Kai Yu, Christopher M. Yakacki
LCEs show great potential for soft-robot applications due to their large and reversible actuation behavior under simple stimuli (e.g. heat and light) [75]. For example, light sensitive LCEs have been used in either multi- or single- layer robotic structures for various forms of locomotion, such as inchworm walking [168,169], caterpillar rolling [170], and swimming [171]. Zeng et al. fabricated a micro-walker with the robot body acting as an artificial muscle [172]. Micro-feet were fabricated with rigid passive materials and attached to the LCE body to reduce the adhesion stress from the surrounding environment (e.g. van der Waals, capillary forces, etc.). In a report by Palagi and coworkers, structured monochromatic passing light was shone onto a photoactive LCE microfiber to render micro-scale local expansion [173]. The resultant local deformation formed transient micro-textures that resembled traveling waves and led to intricate biomimetic motions of soft robots (Figure 22). Unlike traditional microrobots, these soft robots allow for spatial selectivity, thereby enabling a wider range of complex motions and applications, such as tissue and blood vessel diagnostics [173].