ArticleNature communications2024
Focused ultrasound enables selective actuation and Newton-level force output of untethered soft robots.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Bioinspired liquid metal-spidroin (LMS) stripe microneedle actuators.Materials today. Bio · 2026Article
- Review of Gastrointestinal Capsule Robots: Materials, Actuation, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Microrobots for Precision Diagnosis and Treatment in the Digestive System: A Review of Actuation Mechanisms, Structural Design, Preclinical and Translational Applications.Micromachines · 2026Review
- Laser-Guided Self-Rolled Magnetic Microrobots for Targeted Biofilm Eradication in Severely Infected Medical Stents.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- Ultrasound-guided closed-loop control of magnetic hydrogel microrobots with adaptive gait switching.Microsystems & nanoengineering · 2026Article
- Ultrasound-sensitive microrobotic sensor with robust anchoring for long-term digestive lesion assessment.National science review · 2026Article
- Soft robotic devices for cardiovascular medicine.Nature reviews. Cardiology · 2026Review
- Enable active mobility of untethered miniature robots in high-resistance multiphase medium.Science advances · 2026Article
- Combining tethered and untethered magnetic robots via a magnetically triggerable latch for target payload delivery and retrieval.Science advances · 2026Article
- Modular magnetic microrobot system for robust endoluminal navigation and high-radial force stent delivery in complex ductal anatomy.Science advances · 2025Article
- Thermally Actuated Soft Robotics.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Review
- Recent Advances in Stimuli-Responsive Materials and Soft Robotic Actuators for Bioelectronic Medicine.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Review
- A Hollow Shell-Lattice Soft Robot in Flexible Pipelines with Flowing Fluids.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Enhancing Ultrasound Power Transfer: Efficiency, Acoustics, and Future Directions.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Review
- Embedded Conductive Fiber for Pumpless Liquid-Gas Phase Transition Soft Actuation.ACS applied materials & interfaces · 2025Article
- Magnetic Shaftless Propeller Millirobot with Multimodal Motion for Small-Scale Fluidic Manipulation.Cyborg and bionic systems (Washington, D.C.) · 2025Article
- Heterogeneous multiple soft millirobots in three-dimensional lumens.Science advances · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Untethered miniature soft robots have significant application potentials in biomedical and industrial fields due to their space accessibility and safe human interaction. However, the lack of selective and forceful actuation is still challenging in revolutionizing and unleashing their versatility. Here, we propose a focused ultrasound-controlled phase transition strategy for achieving millimeter-level spatially selective actuation and Newton-level force of soft robots, which harnesses ultrasound-induced heating to trigger the phase transition inside the robot, enabling powerful actuation through inflation. The millimeter-level spatial resolution empowers single robot to perform multiple tasks according to specific requirements. As a concept-of-demonstration, we designed soft robot for liquid cargo delivery and biopsy robot for tissue acquisition and patching. Additionally, an autonomous control system is integrated with ultrasound imaging to enable automatic acoustic field alignment and control. The proposed method advances the spatiotemporal response capability of untethered miniature soft robots, holding promise for broadening their versatility and adaptability.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.