SAM3 · Soft Active Matter Microrobots for Medicine

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners. CORDIS does not always give exact coordinates for projects before 2014. These points are placed at city or country level.

Project objective

Current medical tools and robots are unable to access locations in narrow and delicate organs without highly damaging the tissues and continue suffering for lack of any flexible robot-assisted endoscope platforms that can be safely tele-manipulated for diagnosing pathologies in the ear-nose-throat districts. Microrobots, i.e. miniaturized and precisely controlled robotic devices, have the potential to overcome this issue and revolutionize medicine. To do so, however, they need to be able to sense and react to their environment, to process the information, and to generate a mechanical output controlled by external stimuli. The confined, small, hard-to-reach, and risky inner body sites discards usual engineering solutions to embody all these functionalities in microscopic devices based on standard integration approaches of sensors and actuators by assembly. Our research assumption is that a key enabler for any microrobotic solution would be the building material itself, i.e. a soft and active polymeric material, likely to adapt compliantly to narrow environments, to mechanically respond to remote stimuli, and to be shaped in the desired size and for each application. The vision driving SAM3 is therefore to develop three-dimensional miniature robots based on soft active matter which will enable novel non-invasive interventions or therapies deep inside the human body. To this aim, we are going to train a new community of young talented researchers that, starting from an understanding of the clinical needs, will be able to bridge the gaps between engineering and materials science. The doctoral candidates will receive interdisciplinary training and mentorship by academic leaders in the field of soft active materials; microrobotics and medical, and will get direct exposure to and training by clinical and industrial partners involved in the fundamental, educational, and valorisation-related aspects of the doctoral network.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

• UNIVERSITE DE MONS · MonsCoordinatorBelgium
• Alemnis · Gwatt (Thun)Country levelSwitzerland
• CHU DE BESANCON · BESANCONFrance
• CY CERGY PARIS UNIVERSITE · Cergy-PontoiseFrance
• ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE · LausanneSwitzerland
• EIDGENOSSISCHE MATERIALPRUFUNGS- UND FORSCHUNGSANSTALT · DubendorfSwitzerland
• HETEROMERGE GmbH · DresdenCity levelGermany
• KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN · LeuvenBelgium
• LABORATORIO EUROPEO DI SPETTROSCOPIE NON LINEARI · Sesto-Fiorentino (Fi)Italy
• Lys Medical · GosseliesCity levelBelgium
• MICROLIGHT3D S.A.S · SAINT MARTIN D'HERESFrance
• PERCIPIO ROBOTICS SA · BESANÇONCity levelFrance
• SCUOLA SUPERIORE DI STUDI UNIVERSITARI E DI PERFEZIONAMENTO S ANNA · PisaItaly
• STATICE SAS · BesanconFrance
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI FIRENZE · FlorenceItaly
• UNIVERSITE LIBRE DE BRUXELLES · Bruxelles / BrusselBelgium
• UNIVERSITE MARIE ET LOUIS PASTEUR · BesanconFrance
• UNIVERSITEIT TWENTE · EnschedeNetherlands

Links

• View on CORDIS
• DOI: 10.3030/101312674