Remarkable Trip Through Model Digestive System
The slime robot, which was developed by a research team of CUHK Mechanical and Automation Engineering Department, can deform, grab objects and move, just like the sci-fi movie creatures. Indeed, the robot design was inspired by the movie Venom, but it is different from Venom in a way that it is expected to bring benefit to human beings in the future.
The secret of Slime Robot
Magnetic particles (NdFeB) and borax were sequentially added to a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution to obtain a self-healing magnetic slime robot. The passive and active deformation capabilities of magnetic slime robots give them a remarkable advantage, not only for adapting to complex terrain environments but also for entering confined spaces in a controlled manner while maintaining their mobility and integrity. Magnetic slime robot aims to offer the opportunity to non-invasively access human tissue to perform medical operations and deliver drugs. Magnetic slime robot can solve the challenges of soft medical robots due to the diverse, dynamic, and complex nature of tissues, biological fluids, and fluid-air interfaces inside the human body, benefitting clinicians and patients. Magnetic slime robot allows easy loading or coating with drugs, imaging agents, or biosensing molecules and the integration of functional micro- or nanomaterials. In addition to the advantage of adapting to the complex environment of the human body, the material of magnetic slime robot and its degradation products are biocompatible, have no negative impact on patient health, and can provide feedback signals to medical imaging devices.
Figure 1. Programming complex shapes of the magnetic slime robot using ferromagnets in disk-, hexagon-, and ring-shapes.
The magnetic slime robot can deform into complex shapes, such as circles, hexagons, and rings, under the configured magnetic field.
Figure 2. Frames of the stretchable behavior of the magnetic slime robot. Scale bar, 10 mm.
The magnetic slime robot can be driven by a permanent magnet (NdFeB) and stretched more than seven times its original length along the direction of the magnet motion.
Figure 3. Overlapped sequential snapshots of videos show that the magnetic slime robot is actuated to navigate through the channel, tube, maze, and uneven surfaces in air. Scale bars, 10 mm.
Under the control of a magnetic field, the slime can navigate freely through various terrains such as narrow channels, confined tubes, complex mazes, and uneven substrates.
Figure 4. Slime robot grasps a wire by curling behavior. Scale bar, 10 mm.
By controlling the rotation of the magnet, the slime robot can be driven to curl.
Figure 5. Slime robot swallows tiny object. Scale bar, 10 mm.
By moving the ring-shaped magnet, the slime robot can be made to open its mouth and swallow small objects.
Figure 6. The healed slime robot can withstand at least up to 8.6 times the stretch deformation. Scale bar, 10 mm.
Slime robots are self-healing and can assemble robots of different compositions.
Media Coverage
The study was widely covered by international media outlets like BBC, Guardian, and New Scientist. The news videos have gained over 10 million views online. The research team was thrilled about the overwhelming response, ‘It is encouraging to know that our study has aroused people’s interest and attention. We will keep it up and explore how the slime robot can be put into practical use in the future.’
‘Magnetic turd’
The Guardian
Scientists have created a moving magnetic slime capable of encircling smaller objects, self-healing and “very large deformation” to squeeze and travel through narrow spaces.
This Slime Robot Could Operate in Your Body
Bloomberg
This slug-like slime robot created at the Chinese University of Hong Kong could be used to retrieve foreign objects in your stomach and intestines.
Robot ‘slime magnet’ could save lives
New York Post
Accidentally swallowed a magnetic ball? Not to worry: Hong Kong scientists have created a state-of-the-art “slime robot” that can be magnetically manipulated to retrieve inadvertently ingested objects, among a myriad of other real-world applications.
Research Team
Soft Slime Robot
Prof. Li ZHANG
Prof. Li Zhang is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering (MAE) and a professor by Courtesy in the Department of Surgery, at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He is also a director of the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) – CUHK Joint Laboratory of Robotics and Intelligent Systems. Dr. Zhang received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Basel, Switzerland. During his Ph.D. research, he was also with the laboratory for micro- and nanotechnology (LMN), Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). Before he joined CUHK, he worked in Prof. Bradley Nelson’s group as a postdoc and then as a senior scientist and lecturer in the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland. Dr. Zhang’s main research interests include miniature robots and devices, milli-/micro-/nanorobotics and their biomedical applications.
Prof. Philip W.Y. CHIU
Prof Philip W.Y. CHIU is currently Professor, Honorary Consultant and Head of Division of Upper Gastrointestinal and Metabolic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Prince of Wales Hospital; Director of Multi-Scale Medical Robotics Center; Director of CUHK Chow Yuk Ho Technology Center for Innovative Medicine and Associate Dean (External Affairs), Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests include esophageal cancer management, minimally invasive and robotic esophagectomy, novel endoscopic technologies for diagnosis of early GI cancers, endoscopic surgery as well as robotics for endoluminal surgery. Prof. Chiu is first in Hong Kong to perform endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for treatment of early GI cancers in 2004 and Per-oral Endoscopic Myotomy (P.O.E.M.) in 2010. In 2011 he pioneered world first robotic gastric ESD, followed by world first robotic colorectal ESD in 2020.
Prof. Kai Fung CHAN
Prof. Kai Fung CHAN’s research interests include medical miniature devices, micro-/nanorobotics, and translational medicine. His research interests are (1) Miniature medical devices for the in vivo diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal diseases; (2) Microrobotic sensing platforms for automated pathogen sensing; (3) Micro-/nanorobotics for minimally invasive endoluminal intervention; and (4) the corresponding translational research. His research on microrobotic platforms for biomedical applications was published in Science Robotics in 2021 and Advanced Materials in 2022. One of them was highlighted in Nature Spotlight and many local media. He has 7+year of experience in biomedical engineering research and preclinical studies.
Dr. Mengmeng SUN
Dr. Mengmeng SUN, the first author of the research paper has proved that science and fiction can merge. He says he got his inspiration for slimebot from the Venom character in the Spiderman movie. For the less fictional future, with the laboratory’s 10 years of experience on magnetic actuation technology, the team hope to deploy the slimebot in a robotic arm that can magnetically control it from outside the body. Precision with real time monitoring and safety are of the utmost importance if the robot is to be deployed in human body. Now, the team is working on pre-clinical trials.
The findings have been published in Advanced Functional Materials:
M. M. Sun, C. Y. Tian, L. Y. Mao, X. H. Meng, X. J. Shen, B. Hao, X. Wang, H. Xie*, L. Zhang*, Reconfigurable Magnetic Slime Robot: Deformation, Adaptability, and Multifunction, Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 32, Issue 26, 2112508, 2022. [Link]
