Having a stomachache and having no appetite for food? Just chew on a robot and you'll be fine. What kind of robot is so strange?

Nowadays, what can robots do? A simple online search will reveal many robots with extraordinary skills, such as those that can dance, run marathons, practice martial arts, or mop the floor, fold clothes, and solve Rubik's Cubes...

However, don't let existing robots limit your imagination. Scientists with wild ideas have already created a bunch of strange "things": Have you ever thought that you could eat a robot when you're not feeling well?

As early as 2016, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology mentioned: If you eat the wrong thing, why not eat a robot to save your life!

This idea actually originated from a very practical problem. For children, accidentally swallowing button batteries is very dangerous. The research mentioned that in the United States alone, there were more than 3,500 cases (in 2016) of children accidentally swallowing button batteries from toys, watches, and other items. When such a situation occurs, the button battery may leak harmful liquid, causing burns to the stomach or esophagus. Therefore, doctors often need to perform surgery quickly.

The robot developed by scientists can greatly reduce the workload of doctors. When designing this robot, scientists thought that the characteristics of this robot are: small size, the ability to move freely, but can be controlled.

Therefore, the final robot is actually a robot with a magnet that can be folded like origami and is controlled by a magnetic field. To meet the foldable characteristic, scientists not only used a high - grade shrink film but also a layer of pig intestine casing on the outside (scientists specifically found suitable materials in Chinatown) to achieve the foldable effect.

This foldable magnetically - controlled robot can effectively remove button batteries from the stomach. | Reference 1

This robot can conveniently remove the battery from the stomach and can also repair the diseased part of the stomach.

Over the past few years, this kind of ingestible therapeutic robot has been developing, and various novel forms have emerged.

For example, the robot developed by researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2022 is a magnetic slime robot... Although it looks like a slug, it can move freely in the stomach and can roll up various accidentally swallowed things.

It doesn't look very appetizing, but it's really useful! | Amy Kim

Another example is the PillBot developed by Endiatx in 2024. After swallowing this robot, doctors can drive this little robot to swim in your stomach and shoot a 30 - minute video of your stomach. Currently, many bloggers on the Internet have personally tested swallowing this robot. You might as well take a look!

This swallowable small capsule contains a camera that can shoot the condition of your stomach. | Reference 3

However, would you eat a robot to cure a disease? Does it feel... strange?

Last year, a team from Tokyo Denki University and Osaka University in Japan had a bold idea and wanted to study: If we eat a robot, how will it taste and how will we feel?

There are also different ways of eating, such as eating a stationary robot or a moving robot? Swallow it directly in one gulp or chew it in your mouth for a few times?

Therefore, in the study, a soft robot looks like a gummy bear, tastes sweet, and moves around when held in the mouth. You will eat it, and you will be informed in advance that it is a robot. Then you will be asked to answer a questionnaire.

You will also be asked if it is crispy, soft, or crunchy. The result is that when eating a non - moving robot, people will think it is soft and has a good texture; but for a moving robot, people will think it is crispy.

In addition to the texture, the ability to move in the mouth will also affect our perception of the robot's taste. Generally, people think that a moving robot tastes better...

A is the robot, b is a non - moving fake robot, and C and D are both real gummy bears. | Reference 2

The researchers mentioned that this study is very meaningful... because it can help us better understand our eating behavior, create a new dining experience, and stimulate our brains when eating... Anyway, no matter how you think about it, eating is very important, and this study also reveals that for most people, it doesn't seem like a big deal to eat a robot... (?)

When creating a robot, you often need to have wild ideas and come up with some very novel ideas. Maybe it will be the direction of future development?

References

[1]https://news.mit.edu/2016/ingestible-origami-robot-0512

[2]https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0296697

[3]https://www.embs.org/pulse/articles/swallowable-remote-controlled-robot-tours-the-stomach-transmits-live-video/

[4]https://www.erg.cuhk.edu.hk/erg/node/2403

This article is from the WeChat public account "Bring Science Home" (ID: steamforkids), author: Skin. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.