Mechatronics and robotics

The Weird Biomedical Tech From IEEE's Biggest Robotics 
Conference 
A host of bizarre biomedical robots turned up at ICRA 2017, IEEE’s 
flagship robotics conference, which took place earlier this month in 
Singapore. We saw swallowable robots that poke the stomach with needles 
and worm-like robots that explore the colon. Equal parts unnerving and 
fascinating, these bots aim to help people – perhaps in ways we hope we 
never need. After sifting through this year’s presentations, we’re bringing 
you the five most terrifying and inventive video demonstrations.
Swallowable biopsy robot of doom
 
This capsule robot innocuously tumbles around inside your stomach – 
until it reaches suspicious-looking tissue. Then, like an EpiPen on steroids, 
the soft-bodied bot whips out a needle and jabs that spot inside your 
stomach in ten fast pumping movements. But this swallowable needle 
doesn’t inject anything. Instead, it suctions up samples of tissue that 
doctors can analyze for signs of cancer or other disease. Then it moves on 
to other suspicious spots inside the stomach. 
The biopsy technique, called fine needle aspiration, is typically 
performed from outside the body. This capsule robot, designed by 
researchers at the physical intelligence department at Max Planck Institute 
for Intelligent Systems, in Stuttgart, Germany, moves the technique inside 
the body. Thanks guys. 
Previous swallowable biopsy robot designs only scrape at the surface 
tissue, they argued at ICRA. Doctors need a tool that will 
really
get in 
there, and this design will do it. They tested it out on fresh pork fat placed 
in a plastic human stomach model. The capsule is equipped with a magnet, 

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allowing the researchers to guide the robot’s orientation and jabbing 
motions while inside the stomach. Of course after the job is done, the 
robot, with tissue sample inside, has to be retrieved. Its inventors suggest 
pulling it back out of the throat by a tether.