Robot Uses Artificial Beetle Juice To Cling To Gut

With all this RFID implant business going on, the Magic School Bus days are getting closer and closer. We already have a pill that’ll show you your insides, so what’s next? How about a robot you can swallow that attaches to your intestinal wall which can then perform biopsies, deliver drugs, or administer localized treatment to your gut? Metin Sitti, a professor at NanoRobotics Lab at Carnegie Mellon, and his team were looking for an appropriate adhesive to adorn the robot’s feet with so it would be able to attach itself to the intestinal wall easily.

With no luck, the team looked to insects like beetles, directly drawing inspiration from the oil-like liquids they secrete along their foot hairs in order to stick securely to surfaces. With their homemade “beetle juice”, the team was successful in having the robot attach to an animal intestines as well as on an animal esophagus. I’d hate to be the poor animal that gets to shit that robot out.

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