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The Diagnostic 'Bugbot'

Posted by samzenpus on from the not-chewable dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that a robot combined with a swallowable camera could give doctors a better look inside the small intestine. This medical robot, dubbed 'bugbot,' is being developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in its NanoRobotics Laboratory. It will measure less than 800 nanometers in diameter and will transmit thousands of images during its trip inside yourself with its embedded camera. With the six legs attached to the microrobot, CMU researchers want to give more control to camera operators, such as coming back to a suspected lesion. This robot should be ready for human inspection within 2 to 3 years and opens the way for future nanorobots. This overview contains more details about this project."

6 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. 800 nm ??? by BurntNickel · · Score: 3, Interesting

    800 nanometers seems way too small. That's on the order of one wavelength of visible light. I think someone got the units wrong.

    --
    And the knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them...
  2. The Magnificent Journey by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    http://www.givenimaging.com/ make the only existing swallowable endoscopy camera on the market, and yes, the drugs for conventional endoscopy are a solid hit.

  3. Too much information below: by Create+an+Account · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've had a colonoscopy (I had colon cancer when I was 34; it's cool, I'm all better now) and they make well sure that you are all 'cleaned out' prior to the procedure. I'm sure it's the same with this.

    First, you take a powerful laxative. This tastes like toxic 7-up. Make sure your bathroom is well-stocked.

    Then the next day you drink a GALLON of electrolytic fluid (like soapy gatorade) over the course of a couple of hours. You will have nuclear diarrhea for a while. This is way worse (the diarrhea) than you get from the chemotherapy (depending on what drugs you get; I got leukovorin and 5FU).

    Even with all of this, swallowing the camera would be way better than the old way. Let me just say that the cable on the camera they use on the other end is over 7 feet long. I'm not even 6 feet tall. *shudders*

  4. soil samples? by moviepig.com · · Score: 2, Interesting
    With the six legs attached to the microrobot, CMU researchers want to [be able to come] back to a suspected lesion.

    This eye-robot, on its less-than-fantastic voyage, should soon thereafter be able to retrieve tiny tissue samples, too. Locomotion can't be much easier than prospecting...

    --
    Seeing bad movies only encourages them. Watch responsibly
  5. M2A bot beat them to the punch... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    http://www.engadget.com/entry/4351460713635569/

    http://www.devicelink.com/mem/archive/05/04/004.ht ml

  6. Re:WTF? by iotaborg · · Score: 4, Interesting

    (disclaimer: I'm affiliated with the nanorobotics group)

    This robot is most certainly not 800nm in diameter, and never will be, that dimension is definetely inaccurate (and isn't even cited on the actual news paper article). It's not even feasible to have such a small robot, as the control aspect would be hell, and it would not be able to grip the walls of the intestine (which is where the control mechanically comes from). The goal of this project is not to develop a capsule to image the intestine (this already exists! google for the Norika capsule products, and is in use). Rather it is to design a *controllable* capsule, that can be teleoperated. Current solutions involve swollowing the capsule and let it image 'randomly'. This project is to improve this aspect of such a robot, which would give surgeons an advantage when performing colonoscopies or similar - as they can specifically target certain sites to image reliably.

    And it's most certainly not a "nanorobot".