What would a space ER look like? Bio-inks, magnetic robots, and fungi-inspired tubes are just some of the futuristic options.
Current human-rated spacecraft come stocked with emergency supplies to assist the crew, mostly everyday things like Band-Aids and aspirin, but also more specialized items like hydromorphone injections and those all-too-famous space blankets. While astronauts on the International Space Station have relied on these as well as telemedicine calls to treat ailments and keep a clean bill of health, the fact is, being on another world could put a serious dent in the capacity of emergency medical care.
But as demand for smaller, more compact technologies grows, another class of machines has been rocketing to new heights. Capable of stretching, squeezing, bending, and even twisting to fulfill their tasks, “soft robots” are fabricated with materials inspired by living tissue such as human skin, instead of the rigid structures used in traditional remote-controlled systems.
“I work in a field where we build robots that can help patients survive,” Russo explains. “We as engineers listen to people that have problems, and we want to engineer a robotic solution to it.” She likes to point to’s Baymax as a fictional example of an autonomous soft robot that successfully heals people, either with the various medical devices it’s equipped with or by offering helpful advice.
Though the doodads in development won’t be able to simply hug anyone’s aches and pains away , they’re lightweight and relatively cheap to produce, making them easy to transport to remote locations, says Russo. For instance, one lab at Kings College in the U.K. is trying to address the limitations of ultrasound by creating adaptable soft robots that can withstand high-energy sound waves.
As these prototypes gain traction within the greater medical field, there’s still a long list of quirks and challenges to tackle. But their endless potential could help humans endure extreme circumstances both on Earth and in the stars.
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