This Magnetic Black Slime is an Intelligent Robot That Can Enter Your Body and Retrieve Swallowed Objects

Everything we have seen in science fiction is now becoming science fact and this magnetic black slime reminds us of the movie “Flubber” from 1997 of a professor who stumbles upon a lively intelligent rubbery like substance that has a life of its own. This intelligent magnetic black slime is exactly that, the only difference is that it is very real and promises to revolutionize the way we receive medical treatment for accidentally swallowing objects.

Created by scientists from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, this soft-bodied robot slime is an elastomer based robot that shape-shift or change shape to pass itself through narrow tunnels (arteries or veins) with a of 1.5 mm. It can navigate autonomously through complex mazes, uneven substrates and within extremely tight areas under the control of a magnetic field.

Liquid based robots are nothing new in the modern age but this particular slime robot has many upgrades from its predecessors such as being made of advanced substrates such as hydrogel, plastic, silica, glass, metal, silicon, paper and polydimethylsiloxane.

The scientists who created this magnetic black slime robot envision a range of uses for this technology such as it being able to enter the human body to retrieve accidentally swallowed objects that in some cases may require expensive surgery to remove.

Another possible application within the human body is targeted drug distribution to specific areas of the body. Outside of the human body it can be used to repair and fix electrical circuits and switches in places inaccessible to humans. In addition to the above their are a wide range of future applications for this technology in the biomedical industry, smart devices, and even military applications.