New Invention Soft Robot Spiders Could Be The Future Of Medical Science

To many of us, spiders are the freaks of nature and they creep the living soul out of us. However, a team of researchers from Boston and Harvard developed a spider-like soft-robotics system which will help improve medical procedures, taking inspiration from a real-life Australian spider.

The soft robot invention is designed to help with sutures in surgeries. They could be deployed into small spaces and delicate situations.

These arachnid-inspired robots only measure a few centimeters in size.

They could contain the tools necessary for successful operations, which cannot be done by humans or rigid robots.

These robots are equipped with micrometer-sized tools and features that could make considerable contributions to advancing the field of medicine.

The inspiration for the soft robot came from the tiny Australian peacock spider.

This robot spider is made from a single elastic material that is able to do body-shaping, do motion, and have color.

The idea was conceived by roboticists and researchers from Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and Boston University.

According to Sheila Russo, co-author of the robotics study:

“The smallest soft robotic systems still tend to be very simple, with usually only one degree of freedom, which means that they can only actuate one particular change in shape or type of movement. By developing a new hybrid technology that merges three different fabrication techniques, we created a soft robotic spider made only of silicone rubber with 18 degrees of freedom, encompassing changes in structure, motion, and color, and with tiny features in the micrometer range.”

The medical application of these robot spiders is envisioned to bring new approaches to endoscopy and microsurgery.

While a large number of us are creeped out by the idea of being crawled on by a spider, these team of roboticists believe that this tech will be the next big thing for medical science.