Nanopropeller

We've seen some great examples of biomimetics before. Now, driven by the goal of having tiny robots zip around our bodies carrying out tasks such as delivering drugs, biomimetics is moving to the micro and nanoscale. Researchers from the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems (Zurich, Switzerland) have been inspired by the way bacteria move around using helical structures called flagella. Professor Nelson and PhD student Dominik Bell have developed a nanocoil that can be driven at 60rpm to potentially propel a microbot to a speed of about 5 microns per second (approximately one human hair-width in about 5 seconds). This may not be Top Gear-worthy speed but it's a great effort to find ways of driving the microbots and nanobots of the future.