The "marriage" of food science and robotics makes edible electronic products a reality

　　[World Trend of Scientific and Technological Innovation]

　　In April last year, Mario Chironi, a senior researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology and others, published a paper in the American magazine "Advanced Materials" stating that they had developed the world's first rechargeable and fully edible battery, and said that edible electronics The equipment will have a significant impact on areas such as gastrointestinal monitoring and treatment, as well as food quality monitoring.

　　The team is not “alone.”

According to a recent report by the Physicist Organization, Dario Floriano, director of the Intelligent Systems Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, is currently working on a bold research project: creating edible robots and digestible electronics.

　　Floriano pointed out that no matter how incredible it may seem or sound, bringing food science and robotics "together" will have a significant impact on fields such as medical health and environmental protection.

　　Breaking the boundaries between food and robots

　　Floriano said the idea to combine food and robots originated from a comment made by postdoctoral researcher Jun Xinzhu in 2017.

Hsinchu Jun said that the main difference between robots and biological systems is that robots cannot be eaten by other living things.

Floriano started thinking about how to push the boundaries between food and robots.

　　To this end, he leads a project called "ROBOFOOD".

The project aims to replace hard, cold electronic components with edible parts, pushing the boundaries of robotics research by creating edible robots and food that behave like robots.

The project lasts for four years and is scheduled to last until September 2025.

Team members include scientists from Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK.

　　The "Machine Food" team has teamed up with scientists from Wageningen University in the Netherlands to develop a drone whose wings are rice cakes stuck together with cooking oil and chocolate.

　　Floriano said that they have developed the world's first drone with 50% edible parts.

This drone can be used in emergency search and rescue operations. It can not only be used to locate missing people or animals, but also deliver important food or medicine. The drone itself is edible, and its edible parts meet the requirements of the United Nations during critical periods. Standards for required food.

　　Of course, the current challenge for this drone is to use edible materials strong enough to make the wings to withstand wind, rain and high temperatures.

　　Facilitating real-time diagnosis and treatment in the health field

　　The project team continued their efforts and expanded the concept into the health field.

They collaborated with Professor Jonathan Rossiter, a roboticist at the University of Bristol in the UK, to develop a digestible sensor that can help treat or monitor intestinal diseases.

　　While ingestible devices, such as pills containing cameras or digital systems, are already used in healthcare, these devices currently contain indigestible components that need to be retrieved after use.

Unlike these intestinal devices, the new sensor does not need to be excreted by the patient or removed from the patient's body.

Ease of digestion also avoids the risk of substances remaining in the body.

　　The research team says that while further testing and development is needed, the sensor shows that it is possible to create digestible electronic components.

　　According to the official website of Westlake University, Professor Jiang Hanqing from the School of Engineering of the school made edible supercapacitors by using ingredients that are edible and have electronic properties in daily life, such as seaweed, cheese, and edible gold and silver.

The research team stated that such supercapacitors are both edible and digestible and can be used to power some tiny devices to detect the physiological status of the human body and avoid the pain and discomfort caused by invasive examinations to patients.

　　Jiang Hanqing's team believes that if more such electronic devices can be implanted or entered into the human body in an appropriate manner, future real-time diagnostic and treatment electronic instruments will be very promising, and human beings' understanding of themselves will also be infinitely expanded.

　　Reduce e-waste and protect the environment

　　The research team said that in addition to being used in the field of health testing, the "machine food" project will also make a significant contribution to environmental protection.

Food-grade materials and processes that are easily broken down and even digested could help solve the world’s growing e-waste problem.

　　Especially the problem of used batteries.

It is estimated that 3 billion batteries are discarded in the United States every year.

Most of these batteries end up in landfills, where they leak toxic materials into the environment.

　　Mario is also the leader of the "Machine Food" team. He led the development of the world's first edible rechargeable battery, with almost all components edible.

Specifically, the battery's anode and cathode are composed of riboflavin (vitamin B2) and quercetin respectively, the electrolyte is water-based, and the separator (the permeable membrane between the anode and cathode that prevents short circuits) is made of nori.

　　Once fully charged, the 0.65-volt battery can deliver 48 microamps of current for 12 minutes, the researchers said.

It doesn't sound like much, but it's enough to power small electronic devices like low-power LEDs.

Connor Boland, a battery technology development physicist at the University of Sussex in the UK, pointed out that this research shows that rechargeable batteries can be made entirely from edible materials.

　　In another breakthrough, the Robot Food team has developed an edible actuator that converts energy into mechanical force to help robots function.

In other words, after a robot equipped with this kind of actuator is swallowed by a person, the actuator will cause the robot to do something useful. This also marks a big step for the research team on the road to realizing fully functional and edible robots. step.

　　Reporter Liu Xia