Would you swallow a robot? Mechanical pill acts like torpedo of medicine, study says

For as long as doctors have been prescribing pills, stomach acid and mucus in the digestive tract have presented a challenge, the researchers wrote in the study. Pills or capsules degrade, and the mucus lining stops much of the medicine from being absorbed. But the RoboCap can get around this issue, researchers say. — Photo by Ksenia Yakovleva on Unsplash

The body is equipped with natural defences, inside and out, to protect us from a whole wide world of microscopic threats. But sometimes those defences, well-meaning as they may be, can get in the way of what the body needs – like medicine.

So, a team of researchers thought, why not design a tiny, motorised robot – small enough to fit inside a pill along with a payload of medicine – that can drill right through those defences?