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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

+hardware

MIT researchers have developed an ingestible robot that can unfold itself [kurzweilai.net] and be steered throughout the body using a magnetic field:

MIT researchers and associates have developed a tiny "origami robot" that can unfold itself from a swallowed capsule and, steered by a physician via an external magnetic field, crawl across the stomach wall to operate on a patient. For example, it can remove a swallowed button battery or patch a wound.

Every year, 3,500 swallowed button batteries are reported in the U.S. alone. Frequently, the batteries are digested normally, but if they come into prolonged contact with the tissue of the esophagus or stomach, they can cause an electric current that produces hydroxide, which burns the tissue.

Also at MIT News [mit.edu].

Ingestible, Controllable, and Degradable Origami Robot for Patching Stomach Wounds [papercept.net]

Original Submission