A soft robot could help doctors diagnose and treat disorders of the small intestine.
MIT engineers designed a snake-inspired soft robot that moves through the small intestine and can image tissue, spray drugs, and take biopsies. It has so far been tested in animals.
Engineers at MIT have built a soft robotic enteroscope meant to move through the small intestine, an organ that is hard to reach. According to the university, the small intestine is more than 20 feet long, about an inch in diameter, and sits deep in the body, which makes it harder to access than the colon or stomach.
The tube-like robot takes its cues from snakes. A snake steers by contracting muscles on one side of its body and then the other, and the robot mimics this with actuators that each contain four chambers. Inflating the chambers in different combinations makes the tube extend or bend in any direction. Senior author Giovanni Traverso, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT and a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, said that adjusting the amount of air in the chambers changes the direction of travel.
The head and tail segments carry extra anchoring balloons that inflate and deflate in turns to push the robot forward. They are covered in sleeves patterned after kirigami, a form of origami that involves cutting as well as folding. The sleeves lie flat until a balloon stretches them, at which point small three-dimensional needles pop out. Like snake scales, the needles give the robot traction on the slippery intestinal lining.
The researchers say the only current way to diagnose problems such as bleeding, lesions, and blockages in the small intestine is double balloon enteroscopy. In that procedure, a health care worker alternately inflates and deflates two balloons to advance the scope, a process the team described as slow and laborious.
The robot is tethered to external controllers by a cable, and an operator can steer it through narrow passages and tight corners. It is designed to enter through either the mouth or the rectum. Its tools include a camera, a drug sprayer, and clips that can take tissue samples or remove polyps.
In animal studies, the robot traveled about six and a half feet through the small intestine, and the team demonstrated the sprayer, clips, and camera. The work appears in Science Robotics. The researchers are now improving the navigation systems and testing other uses in the small intestine.
At a Glance
- The small intestine is more than 20 feet long and about an inch in diameter, according to MIT.
- In animal studies, the robot traveled about six and a half feet through the small intestine.
- Each actuator has four chambers that inflate in different combinations to extend or bend the tube.
- The study, led by senior author Giovanni Traverso, was published in Science Robotics on October 28, 2026.
Sources
This brief was written by Brightside Report from the reporting linked above. Spot an error? Request a correction.