A tiny robot is gaining the skills to perform surgeries inside the body.
Researchers at Nanyang Technological University built a millimeter-scale magnetic soft robot that can perform five different internal functions.
Measuring 4.4 mm at its widest, the robot is steered wirelessly by weak magnetic fields, crawling or rolling through tissue before switching tools in under a second.
A reprogrammable magnetic core lets it cut tissue, grip and store samples, dispense drugs, and heat tumors.
In tests on gelatin and chicken liver, over 99% of exposed cells survived.
Still confined to the lab, researchers say it could one day perform minimally invasive procedures, such as biopsies, targeted drug delivery, and localized heating of tumors, in confined regions of the body that are difficult to reach with normal surgical instruments.