In an effort to mitigate the harmful effects of swallowing batteries, researchers have developed small origami-style robots that can enter the stomach to guide unwanted objects out through the digestive system.
According to MIT News, more than 3,500 people report swallowing coin cell batteries every year. While the objects are small enough to pass through the digestive system on their own, MIT News explains, and they usually do, there is the risk that the batteries could become attached to the esophagus or lining of the stomach. This is where researchers hope their development can help. The project — a collaboration between MIT, the University of Sheffield, and the Tokyo Institute of Technology — builds on previous research in making folding robots that can crawl. The robot could act as an alternative to surgery, entering the body to dislodge the object, controlled by an external magnetic field. According to Robohub, to convince MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory director Daniela Rus of the importance of the project, the study’s first author, Shuhei Miyashita, used a battery and ham. “Shuhei bought a piece of ham, and he put the battery on the ham,” Rus said. “Within half an hour, the battery was fully submerged in the ham. So that made me realise that, yes, this is important.” The final design is similar. Researchers created a frozen ingestible capsule containing a robot that is sandwiched in dried pig intestine. Once inside the stomach, the outer layer of ice melts away and the robot unfolds, ready to swim. But the interesting technology is not reserved for retrieving batteries. “The robot can remove foreign objects, it can patch wounds, or it can deliver medicine at designated locations,” said Rus.
Source: www.mentalfloss.com
