Just imagine: you accidentally swallowed an electric battery, and to remove it, you need to take a pill that turns into a robot. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Sheffield and the Tokyo Institute of Technology have developed a new type of origami robot that transforms into a microsurgeon inside your stomach.
They squeezed this accordion-shaped robot made from dried pig intestine and placed it in a pill that dissolves stomach acid. An internally inserted magnet allows the physician to operate such a microsurgical instrument from the outside with another magnet. It also picks up a battery or other items stuck in your stomach.
This new device appeared after another origami robot, also developed by a group of scientists led by Daniela Rus, director of the Laboratory of Computer Technology and Artificial Intelligence of MIT. It has a completely different design and moves with its own corners, which are able to adhere to the surface of the stomach wall. The research team decided to focus specifically on extracting electric batteries, since people in the United States alone ingest about 3,500 button cell batteries a year. Although they can dissolve naturally, they sometimes cause chemical burns to the stomach and esophagus. A robot can easily fish the battery out of human entrails before these unpleasant events occur. Besides origami surgeons,The team led by Daniela Roos has created many other great things in the past, including robots that can assemble themselves inside a stove.
