Innovator Daniela RusAge 53Director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence LaboratoryForm and functionSqueezed into a pill, this robot unfolds like an origami after it’s swallowed. It can be guided with a tiny magnet to remove a foreign object from the stomach or treat a wound by administering medication.OriginLast summer, Rus and her colleagues began working to adapt an earlier foldable robot for medical use.
InsertionRus’s team places the accordion-shaped robot into an inch-long, 0.09-ounce pill, which dissolves in the stomach in a minute or two. The robot then expands to 1.4 in. by 0.7 in. by 0.3 in.
NavigationDoctors can generate magnetic fields near the patient to guide the robot through the stomach, where they can manipulate it to perform tasks.AftercareThe biodegradable robot breaks down in the stomach like food.Funding The project’s money (Rus wouldn’t say how much) comes from a National Science Foundation grant.CostThe equipment to manipulate the robot is pricey, but its own components cost less than $100, Rus says.Next StepsRus and her team have tested the robot in a silicon-molded prototype stomach and are seeking approval from MIT’s animal care committee to try it in pigs. She says they’re also looking to raise more money. “The experiments they’ve been doing are very promising,” says Ken Goldberg, a robotics professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Until now, he says, “nothing has been able to essentially walk inside the body.”
To contact the author of this story: Olga Kharif in Portland at okharif@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeff Muskus at jmuskus@bloomberg.net.
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