Robot inspired by origami can deliver drugs at the site they are needed

A robot with thin magnetic plates at each end can be steered and compressed using external magnetic fields so it releases an accurate dose of medicine

By Matthew Sparkes

A wireless origami-inspired robot could travel through the digestive system, releasing accurate drug doses at the site they will be most effective.

Qiji Ze at Stanford University in California and his colleagues have built a 7.8-millimetre robot from polypropylene film that is just 0.05 millimetres thick. At each end is a thin magnetic plate that enables external magnetic fields to control the robot’s movement as it travels inside a body.

Depending on the orientation of the fields, the robot can be made to spin, flip or …