If Shane Farritor has his way, medical responders of the future may be less than 3 inches tall. But, these tiny-wheeled robots-slipped into the abdomen and controlled by surgeons located up to several hundred miles away-would be giants in saving the lives of roadside accident victims and soldiers injured on the battlefield.
Farritor is an associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering in at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln, NE). He and his colleagues have developed a handful of miniature prototypes.