Communications of the ACM
Ingestible Origami Robot
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technoloyg, the University of Sheffield, and the Tokyo Institute of Technology have demonstrated a tiny origami robot that can unfold itself from a swallowed capsule and, steered by external magnetic fields, c
Credit: Melanie Gonick/MIT
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and the University of Sheffield have demonstrated an origami robot that can unfold from a ingestible capsule and use external magnetic fields to navigate across the stomach wall to extract a swallowed button battery or repair a wound.
"For applications inside the body, we need a small, controllable, untethered robot system," says MIT professor Daniela Rus.
The robot propels itself via a "stick-slip" motion, in which its appendages cling to a surface through friction when it executes a move, but slip free again when its body flexes to change its weight distribution. To ensure this form of locomotion works, the robot uses a flexible biocompatible material instead of Mylar, as its predecessor did.
The device also is composed of two layers of structural material sandwiching a material that contracts when heat is applied, while a pattern of slits in the outer layers determines how the robot will fold when the middle layer shrinks.
The robot's design also incorporates a fin concept so it can propel water to move forward, while a permanent magnet responds to the external magnetic fields that guide it.
The researchers tested the robot in a simulated stomach and esophagus.
From MIT News
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