Tiny robot could one day travel inside the human body
Image credit: thisisengineering via Unsplash
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan have developed a robot smaller than a grain of salt that can sense, think, and act on its own. Powered by solar cells and equipped with its own propulsion system, the tiny device moves medicine closer to a future in which microscopic robots could travel inside the human body to rewire damaged nerves, deliver drugs to precise locations, and assess cellular health without surgery.
Source
Maya M. Lassiter, Jungho Lee, Kyle Skelil, Li Xu, Lucas Hanson, William H. Reinhardt, Dennis Sylvester, Mark Yim, David Blaauw, Marc Z. Miskin. Microscopic robots that sense, think, act, and compute. Science Robotics, 2025; 10 (109) DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.adu8009
Additional Reading
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/12/12/robot-miniature-tiny-solar-computer/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260105165815.htm