by Jill Warnke
News was released during early 2022 about the creation of a medical robot consisting of custard-like slime.
The medical slime robot is a new tool co created by Li Zhang of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. This robot is designed to combine the benefits of elastic robots and fluid-based soft robots, being able to squeeze through narrow channels even better than elastic robots while also being able to heal itself more efficiently than other liquids.
The medical slime robot is not an actual machine robot, but rather a small blob of slime. It can be used to grasp objects and fix broken circuits, able to be magnetically manipulated to retrieve items, specifically capable of being deployed inside a human body to get objects swallowed by accident.
Because the slime isn’t a machine robot and has no internal electronics, scientists would have to guide it to the required location using imaging, a medical process of making a visual representation of something for clinical analysis.
It’s built with neodynamic magnet particles which allows it to be controlled magnetically and the small scale ability to grasp items. Neodymium is a strong magnetic metal and is also conductive, allowing the slime robot to repair electrical currents between cut wires.
Neodymium magnets are the strongest current commercial magnets available to the point that two neodymium magnets are powerful enough to cut or break fingers when they snap together. These magnets are actually illegal in certain countries because they could pinch the digestive tract if swallowed.
The reason it’s safe to send the slime into the human body is due to its coating of silicone dioxide which covers the toxic neodymium particles of the slime robot, though the safety may also depend on the time it remains in there.
The medical slime robot is still a work in progress that is continuing to be researched in order to make it safer for human usage. Zhang has also mentioned using dyes and pigments to make the slime more colorful and lively.
