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Reporting back to your doctor.



*Robotic capsule to crawl through intestines*

17:58 04 October 04
NewScientist.com news service

A capsule designed to crawl though a patient's stomach, enabling doctors 
to view and even treat an internal ailment remotely, has been developed 
by an international research team.

Researchers from the Sant'Anna Valdera Centre in Pontedera, Italy and 
the Korean Institute of Science and Technology in Seoul, Korea, have 
developed a prototype crawling system.

Current endoscopies require a patient to swallow a capsule equipped with 
a camera that transmits images back outside the body. This enables a 
doctor to remotely examine the tract for potential problems. The capsule 
is passed through the patient's gastrointestinal tract by the motion of 
their digestive system.

But the team led by Paolo Dario at Polo Sant'Anna Valdera believes 
endoscopies could be improved using surgical capsules with a multitude 
of legs, allowing them to crawl slowly to a particular part of a 
patient's intestines.

"After swallowing, the protective coating would dissolve and locomotion 
would begin," Dario told *New Scientist*. "The idea is to improve 
current techniques for full gastrointestinal endoscopies."


*Shape memory alloy*

The researchers have begun testing prototype legs walking through animal 
stomach tissue and have also developed a system for controlling the leg 
movement. Each leg is made from a shape memory alloy, which “remembers” 
its original shape and reverts back to it - much like a spring - each 
time a step is taken.

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*Weblinks*

Polo Sant'Anna Valdera Centre 
<http://www.sssup.it/sssup/jsp/section.jsp?sec_id1=528&lang=en>
Intelligent Microsystem Center, Korean Institute of Science and 
Technology <http://www.kaist.edu/>
IROS 2004 <http://www.iros2004.org/>

Testing has shown that the legs can scrabble across intestinal tissue 
without causing damage. But, before trials using live animals can begin, 
the team plans to further improve the motion of the legs. "It must be 
completely safe," Dario says.

The researchers have a prototype capsule that is 25 millimetres long and 
10 mm in diameter – a little larger than an existing endoscope. But 
Dario says it should be possible to miniaturise the device further.

How the device will be controlled is an issue as yet unsolved, however. 
Nevertheless, Dario believes it may eventually be possible to equip the 
capsule with tools that will allow it to perform simple surgical 
procedures. "Effectively we would like to enable the doctor to become 
very small," he says.

The research was presented by Dario at the Intelligent Robotics and 
Systems (IROS) 2004 conference in Sendai, Japan.

Will Knight, Sendai