Breakthrough in collaborative magnetic microrobotics

For the first time ever, researchers at the Surgical Robotics Laboratory of the University of Twente successfully made two microrobots work together to pick up, move and assemble passive objects in 3D environments. This achievement opens new horizons for promising biomedical applications. Imagine you need surgery somewhere inside your body. However, the part that needs surgery is very difficult to reach for a surgeon. In the future, a couple of robots smaller than a grain of salt might go into your body and perform the surgery. These microrobots could work together to perform all kinds of complex tasks. "It's almost like magic", says Franco Piñan Basualdo, corresponding author of the publication.