in experiments involving a simulation of the human esophagus and stomach , researchers are presenting this week at the international conference on robotics and automation , builds on a long sequence of papers on origami robots from the research group of daniela rus , the andrew and erna viterbi professor in mit ’s department of electrical engineering and computer science .
 
for applications inside the body , we need a small thing .
it ’s really difficult to control and place a robot inside the body if the robot researchers from mit have designed a new ingestible " robot " that could one day be used to patch internal wounds , deliver medicine , or remove accidentally swallowed objects from the stomach .
developed by an international team of researchers from mit , the university of sheffield in the uk and the tokyo institute of technology in japan , the origami robot is the latest developed by mit computer science and artificial intelligence laboratory director daniela rus , who has been building and researching origami robots for years .
says rus , who also directs mit ’s computer science and artificial intelligence laboratory ( csail ) .
in the us every year , over 3,500 incidents of swallowed button batteries are reported in the us , and most cases of battery swallowing involve toddlers .
for applications inside the body if the robot is attached to enlarge image melanie gonick mit a pill that unfolds into a little robot could one day give parents everywhere a little more peace of mind .