One the scale of ‘Things from Sci-Fi That Would be Useful in Real Life’ – the nanobots that inhabit the bodies of Star Trek’s Borg species are near the top.

Now, researchers in Germany have made some progress on efforts to release microscopic robots from the world of fiction, and they could bring some very real health benefits.

Engineers have worked for years to develop tiny robots to swim through bodily fluids, monitoring the situation, delivering medicine or even repairing damaged cells.

Now, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany say they have what could be a workable design – cyborg scallops.

Modelled form their real life counterpart but shrunk to a near-microscopic scale, the micro-robo-scallops can wiggle back and forth to move themselves through blood, eyeball fluids or other liquids in the body.

The big breakthrough came from advanced modelling of the way a real scallop, the team said.

Moving backward and forward is the best way to get through non-Newtonian fluids (which grow thicker or thinner depending on the situation, as opposed to water, which can retain its viscosity), as it require less energy than more technical movement styles.

In fact, the robo-scallops are powered by an external magnetic field, needing no batteries or power sources of their own.

The new German development does not have a specific application yet, but the researchers behind it say it could become a reference design for other teams and companies to develop advanced medical technologies.

Their research has been published in the journal Nature Communications, and a video describing more detail is available below.