Medical Implications for a Origami Robot You Can Swallow

Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!

MINI BELIEVE IT OR NOT –

Researchers at MIT, the University of Sheffield, and the Tokyo Institute of Technology have invented an origami robot that can be swallowed by a patient and then controlled by an electromagnet to remove foreign objects or make other internal repairs. 

In the U.S. every year, there are over 3,500 incidents of swallowed button batteries
The origami robot can be encased in ice in a pill form to be swallowed
It melts in the stomach acid and balloons out
From there, it can be controlled with a magnet to grab and hold onto foreign objects in the stomach lining
Other possible uses than removing button batteries are being explored
If the origami robot can be controlled without need of the external magnet, the possibilities are endless



MINI BION
“BIONs” – short for Believe It or Not – is the word we use at Ripley’s to refer to anything that is unbelievable and worthy to become part of Ripley’s lore and collection.

Source: Medical Implications for a Origami Robot You Can Swallow