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Edible Robot?

5/17/2016

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Now, the advancement of technology has allowed there to be more robots and drones that are able to perform certain tasks. It also seems like there are more things that robots are able to do for your own personal care. Do you have a battery stuck in your stomach?  Do you have a wound that needs to be patched in one of  your organs? How about if you need a particular medicine to be carried to one of your intestines? Well, that seems like it is no problem for the "edible robot," that the scientists at the University of MIT have designed and created. By the appearance of this microscopically small robot, it seems like it cannot do anything. In fact, I bet you can get mistaken by this robot, thinking it is an insect. 

Researchers and scientists at MIT have thoroughly designed a  pill capsule robot  that is capable of carrying and entering very tight spaces. MIT states that people who have accidentally swallowed or ate past certain small objects that, this robot can safely go through the digestive system without doing any harm. Despite the robot being capable of doing other things,  in particular, MIT has tried to focus on their robot to try to carry out batteries from people's stomach. But why batteries? ​Well, according to  National Capital Poison Center, they state that 3,500 button cell batteries are mistakenly swallowed each year. 
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This is a button cell battery.
You take this "robot," that is folded up inside of a capsule, that you take by mouth, like an ordinary pill. ​The "robot" is has a coating of ice inside of the capsule, so once it has entered your body, the ice melts by the esophagus' heat (in your throat).  Basically, since this robot is in the size of a pill formed like an origami, once it has entered your digestive system, it unfolds into its regular size to get ready into action. Once after the robot has been attached to for example, a battery, the robot and the battery make itself go through the digestive system, and is thrown out by the human body in solid waste form. 
You can check out this video above created by the University of MIT, that will help you understand more of the robot that they created.  
According to USAtoday.com, they state, '“[A researcher] bought a piece of ham, and he put the battery on the ham,” Rus said in a statement. “Within half an hour, the battery was fully submerged in the ham. So that made me realize that, yes, this is important. If you have a battery in your body, you really want it out as soon as possible.”' This particular robot uses a magnetic field system, and so this means that for example, when a particular battery is stuck in one of your intestines, the robot is quickly attracted to what it is looking for.
​It is called, the "edible robot" because for once, this robot is particularly designed to be eaten, or to be swallowed past by. Not only that, but this robot can also transport certain medicines to intestines that regular medicine taken by mouth cannot take to.  

​​Thoughts, Ideas and Opinions
​

I think that maybe because the invention of this microscopic robot will possibly be beneficial for several people. What I mean by this is that, due to the large numbers of people who get batteries stuck in their stomachs' are probably the people who went to the Emergency Room. Now, if many people get ahold of this robot, then when something like this, or related occurs with somebody, then they would easily solve this conflict on their own. It would save and avoid the MAJORITY of people to end up in the hospital when things like this happen, and it helps people save money because then afterwards they wouldn't have to pay an expensive bill for their Emergency hospital check-up. 
​1) First image courtesy of nydailynews.com.  2) Button cell battery image courtesy of ictradenet.com.  3) Video courtesy of YouTube.com/MIT
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