A robot designed to crawl through the human gut by mimicking the wriggling motion of an undersea worm has been developed by European scientists. It could one day help doctors diagnose disease by carrying tiny cameras through patients鈥� bodies.
The team behind the robot includes scientists from Italy, Germany, Greece and the UK. They modelled it on polychaetes, or 鈥減addle worms鈥�, which use tiny paddles on their body segments to push through sand, mud or water.
鈥淲e turned to biological inspiration because, in the peculiar environment of the gut, traditional forms of robotic locomotion don鈥檛 work,鈥� says Arianna Menciassi, a roboticist from the Sant鈥橝nna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy.
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鈥淲orms have locomotion systems suited to such unstructured, slippery environments.鈥�
The team studied the way real worms use their paddles to crawl and developed computer models to simulate the motion. The Italian scientists then put together two prototype robots that move in the same way.
Pig gut
Videos show an early prototype , and a recent version of the robot in a researcher鈥檚 hand. Further clips show more complex prototypes, with multiple paddles and undulating bodies, , to simulate the slippery conditions of the gut, and on a flat surface.
Next, the researchers plan to develop a robot equipped with a camera and light source that can capture video footage as it travels. Doctors currently explore the gut using endoscopes, which have to be fed through the body, or 鈥渃amera pills鈥� that must be swallowed by a patient.
A pill capable of wriggling through the gut on its own could be a valuable tool, says Andrew Gardner, an independent medical imaging expert at University College London.
鈥淐apsules can show you places nothing else can, but you can鈥檛 stop or slow down when you get to a point of interest,鈥� he told 快猫短视频.
Interesting crevice
鈥淏eing able to have some control, perhaps even to turn around and go to look in a crevice that would otherwise be missed, would be very valuable.鈥�
But Gardner says the system would need careful testing. 鈥淚f something this complicated goes wrong, it could be very hard to get out.鈥� He believes it could take years of laboratory and animal testing before the robot is ready for clinical use.
Menciassi agrees but says the project may have other pay-offs. It could, for example, help biologists to study animal locomotion. 鈥淭he robots can be used to validate theories about how certain animals move,鈥� she says.
