Project description
Miniature wireless robotic joints may be conducting your future medical intervention
Robotic surgery helps doctors perform complex procedures with more precision, flexibility, and control than can be accomplished with conventional techniques. It can also make minimally invasive surgery possible. Even removing a tumour in the brain can now be done in some cases with a small hole in the bone directly above the tumour. The robotic arm and tools precisely target the tumour without affecting healthy tissue since their movement is superimposed on previously obtained brain scans. Control, precision, and flexibility are all related to the robotic joints - their range of motion, stability, and control system. UWIPOM2 is shrinking that technology down to the micron level with miniature wireless micro-robotic joints for future micro-surgery and in vivo interventions.
Objective
This project seeks to develop the first micrometric-size Ultra-Efficient Wireless POwered Micro-robotic joint (UWIPOM2), enabling the creation of micro-robotic complex mechanisms for minimally invasive micro-surgery techniques and in-vivo health treatments. The foreseen robotic joint will contain a micro-motor connected to a new type of long-lasting gearbox which reduces drastically friction and simplifies assembly. Moreover, the robotic joint (motor + gear) will be wireless powered through gigahertz electromagnetic waves, thus providing infinite autonomy to any tool or micro-robot activated by UWIPOM2.
The scientific-technological aim is to create the first building block able to power future healthcare micro-robots. Test in in-vivo like environment will be done to demonstrate its feasibility. If the risky scientific and technological challenges hereby proposed are overcome, radically new outstanding minimally invasive micro-surgery techniques and new non-invasive inside body treatments will be enabled, saving thousands of lives.
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Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
28801 Alcala De Henares/Madrid
Spain