Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Sheffield and the Tokyo Institute of Technology have created and conducted experiments to demonstrate a miniscule ingestible origami robot that can perform surgery.

According to the National Capital Poison Center, 3,500 people swallow button batteries annually in the United States (US). With extended contact with the tissue in the esophagus or stomach, an electrical current begins to form, creating hydroxide that burns the tissue. Ingestible robots are the solution to this without traditional surgery.

This origami robot has the ability to unfold itself and conduct surgical procedures with a minimal amount of invasiveness. The robot comes in the form of a capsule that eventually dissolves when swallowed. An external magnet guides the robot through the stomach walls and intestines with a “stick-slip” motion. In other words, friction causes the robotic appendages to “stick” and changing weight distribution leads it to “slip” off the surface and stick to another part.

Visually, through a trial and error process, the researchers landed on a specific rectangular accordion form as the most efficient shape. The material itself is a biodegradable shrink wrap called Biolefin. The origami robot is capable of not only moving across the gastrointestinal tract, but also swimming, climbing, and carrying twice its weight.
To take out the battery, this robot has the ability to attach itself to the battery, dislodging it from gastrointestinal lining, using the magnet and guiding it down the digestive tract. Both the magnet and the button battery pass naturally.

This first step of tiny ingestible origami robots opens the doors to numerous advances in the highly and quickly developing world of medicine and health care.