In this interesting podcast, Dr. Volodymyr Koman, a postdoc at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, talks about his extensive work with cell-sized robots.

After receiving his Ph.D. in Photonics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Dr. Koman accelerated his research studying and developing cell-sized robots, which he refers to as ‘colloidal state machines.’ As he describes, they are essentially state machines that can perform computations while on board a particle. Dr. Koman talks about their desire to create advanced cell-size ‘state machines’ that have the ability to form tissues and create larger structures. And as these tiny robots can sense their environment, as well as store important data and engage in computational tasks, the possibilities for research and application is tremendous. Structurally, they are comprised of tiny electronic circuits made of two-dimensional materials, and they can, remarkably, communicate while completing tasks.

Dr. Koman talks about how these micro-sized robots might be used within the bloodstream, especially in regard to diagnostics, as it could be possible to carry out diagnostic expeditions within the human digestive system. And finally, Dr. Koman discusses the future of robotics and his outlook for these spectacularly small, advanced tiny robots.

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