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Wiggling Your Way To Health Through Robotics

If I were to describe something as “creepy” and “crawly,” I doubt you would want me to insert whatever it is I was talking about into your body. Alas, robotics has found yet another way to prove me wrong by developing a squiggling medical worm that can infiltrate your interior to dispense drugs to various regions of your body.

Developed in Hong Kong, this silicon “milli-robot” comes in at a minuscule 0.15mm thick. The robot uses electromagnetic hairs to move around similar to a centipede, but don’t be fooled by its size. Just like the strength of an ant, this little machine can carry 100 times its body weight and traverse varied terrain in order to accomplish its goal.

While this little guy might not look like much, he has potential life-saving powers. In the future, scientists hope that the robot will be able to carry and deliver drugs to specific, precarious places in the human body such as the digestive system. Additionally, if a camera is attached, it could be used as a more efficient way of scouting for abnormalities in a routine inspection.

My only question is this: Technology, why do you always have to make robotic forms of the creepy animals on planet earth?

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