--- title: "Scientists Want to Put a Horrifying Caterpillar Robot Inside Your Body" description: "Researchers in Hong Kong have invented a robot that looks like a caterpillar. It's designed to travel through your body and release drugs." date: "2018-09-27" modified: "2018-09-27" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/scientists-want-horrifying-caterpillar-robot-inside-body" categories: - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" tags: - "Caterpillar" - "city university of hong kong" - "drug delivery" - "medical devices" - "nature communications" - "robots" - "the digest" --- # Scientists Want to Put a Horrifying Caterpillar Robot Inside Your Body ![Researchers in Hong Kong have invented a robot that looks like a caterpillar. It's designed to travel through your body and release drugs.]() *\Image: City University of Hong Kong\* ## NIGHTMARE FUEL Scientists at the City University of Hong Kong have created a new robot. Upside: it could help deliver drugs inside the body, keeping patients healthier. Downside: it looks like a terrifying bug you wouldn't want anywhere near your insides. The bot looks a cross between a caterpillar and a strip of Velcro, with ominously hairlike legs. Those legs, according to co-creator Wang Zuankai, are so that it can better navigate the various textures of your internal anatomy. "The rugged surface and changing texture of different tissues inside the human body make transportation challenging," he said in a [press release](). "Our multi-legged robot shows an impressive performance in various terrains" (yes he just called the tissues in your body "terrains," it's fine). ## PILL PUSHER It's not clear how the robot will get inside you — probably by swallowing it, right? that seems like the best of a number of not great options — but once it's there, the idea is that it'll crawl through your "body fluids such as blood or mucus," according to the press release. Then, once it reaches its destination — the release suggested a designated spot in your digestive system, for instance — it'll release medicine. ## FROM HELL In all seriousness, though, the bot, which is described in a [new paper]() published in *Nature Communications*, looks like a marvelous piece of engineering. It can climb over obstacles much taller than itself and carry a payload up to 100 times its weight, according to the release. And automated gadgets that deposit drugs and collect data from inside your body are a growing area of research; some have already [won approval from the FDA](). No matter how great it is, that thing is not welcome to climb around *my* insides. **READ MORE**: [Tiny soft robot with multilegs paves way for drugs delivery in human body]() \[EurekAlert\] ***More on tiny robots: [Meet The World’s Smallest Robot, It’s the Size of Fly and Capable of Flight]()*** ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()