University of Canterbury researcher using laser beams to control tiny robots in hopes of medical breakthroughs

A University of Canterbury researcher is using laser beams to control tiny robots in the hopes that it could lead to major medical advancements.

PHD candidate Nicholas Carlisle studies micro-robots which are about the size of one hundredth of a human hair.

He "traps and moves" the robot "swarms" around with highly focused lasers.

Carlisle told Nine to Noon his robot swarms could be used to study the interactions between cells.

"So that's really useful for tissue engineering, and trying to understand at the cellular level what's happening between the cells so that you can produce more realistic tissues when you're trying to make them yourself.

"So later on that could help with 3-D printing muscles and growing organs and stuff."

Micro-robotics is a developing research field that may revolutionise future medical applications, such as drug delivery for cancer treatments.

Carlisle said micro-robots also had huge potential for manufacturing.

He said he's working out the ways he can manipulate the robotic swarms - controlling the density of them.

"As we make the swarm, we then want the robots to bond and lock together, so that then we can build specific structures out of our swarm."

Carlisle described the micro-robots he was using as made up of Polystyrene micro-particles, others were made from nano-scribe 3D printers.