Endoscopic Microcapsule Locomotion

Posted 7 Oct 2004 at 17:17 UTC by steve

The Swirling Brain alerts us to a NewScientist story about a Korean medical robot designed to crawl through the human digestive system. They've one-upped the Chinese robot we mentioned last week by using shape-memory alloy to provide locomotion and encasing the robot in a pill that can be swallowed. Once in your stomach, the pill casing dissolves, freeing the robot to begin its journey. The EMiL project (Endoscopic Microcapsule Locomotion) research team responsible for the robot's development is led by Paolo Dario. The researchers hope to equip the robots with cameras and tiny surgical tools. Other issues such as control and communication are still unsolved.