This minimalist robot can walk, jump, crawl, roll, and swim! The robot prototype is small enough to move around in a stomach or urinary system. It is therefore used for improving medical use, for instance delivering drugs to a target in the human body.

The robot is made out of an elastomer rubber, which is filled with many magnetic, small particles. The main goal for this robotis to put it into a patient’s digestive system and make it accessible to places where we humans do not have access. One the main function of the robot is to deliver a cargo inside the body, which could be drugs of course. The only way to do that would be to have a small pocket in the robot that only opens that experts can control.

This caterpillar-inspired robot is the same size as the grain of rice! Today, the robot has only been tested in artificial stomach model and chicken tissue. However, researchers hope to one day have this robot become a standard tool in healthcare.