Chemical Power for Microscopic Robots in Capillaries

Abstract

The power available to microscopic robots (nanorobots) that oxidize bloodstream glucose while aggregated in circumferential rings on capillary walls is evaluated with a numerical model using axial symmetry and time-averaged release of oxygen from passing red blood cells. Robots about one micron in size can produce up to several tens of picowatts, in steady-state, if they fully use oxygen reaching their surface from the blood plasma. Robots with pumps and tanks for onboard oxygen storage could collect oxygen to support burst power demands two to three orders of magnitude larger. We evaluate effects of oxygen depletion and local heating on surrounding tissue. These results give the power constraints when robots rely entirely on ambient available oxygen and identify aspects of the robot design significantly affecting available power. More generally, our numerical model provides an approach to evaluating robot design choices for nanomedicine treatments in and near capillaries.

28 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Novel type of phase transition in a system of self-driven particles
• Following red blood cells in a pulmonary capillary

Cited by in corpus (6)

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• Microfluidic Pumping by Micromolar Salt Concentrations
• Distributed Control of Microscopic Robots in Biomedical Applications
• Using Surface-Motions for Locomotion of Microscopic Robots in Viscous Fluids
• Energy Dissipation by Metamorphic Micro-Robots in Viscous Fluids
• Acoustic Power Management by Swarms of Microscopic Robots