Researchers have presented an edible robotic actuator, offering a potential leap forward towards the overall goal of an edible robot.
Why edible robots? Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), who showed their results at the recent International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Vancouver, say"
"Potential applications are disposable robots for exploration, digestible robots for medical purposes in humans and animals, and food transportation where the robot does not require additional payload because the robot is the food."
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Electronics can currently be placed inside a human body, but the ability to survive the digestive system is something else entirely. For a robot to be able to be digested, that means that transistors, capacitors, electrodes, and other parts would need to become edible. Robotic actuators, which convert electricity into physical motion, are crucial components.
The EPFL actuator is made from a mix of gelatin, glycerin, and water that's poured into a mold. Measuring 90 mm by 20 mm by 17 mm, according to the EPFL paper presentation, it looks like a standard pneumatic actuator. The main difference is that it is also biodegradable, biocompatible, and environmentally sustainable.
The bio-friendly nature of the actuator also gives it unforeseen advantages, according to researchers. With gelatin that can melt, the actuator potentially could be trained to become self-healing on the chance it gets damaged, giving it an advantage over typical actuators.
The potential uses for an edible robot range from the practical, like studying animals, to the almost-fantastical, like extending human life by continuing to pump electricity in the body. As the presentation at IROS came to an end, according to IEEE someone in the audience had a question which helped bring the high-flying science down to Earth: if the actuator was edible, had anyone, in fact eaten it?
The researchers gave a partial affirmative. While none of them had taken a whole actuator down the hatch, they had eaten some of the scraps left behind during the manufacturing process, the robotic equivalent of licking the cake batter off the spoon. They felt fine afterwards.
David Grossman is a staff writer for PopularMechanics.com. He's previously written for The Verge, Rolling Stone, The New Republic and several other publications. He's based out of Brooklyn.